A Different Start
by chloeyo
Summary: Coulson and May believe that the new consultant, Skye, could be their long lost daughter. Begins in episode 1x01. See how this twist on Skye's parents could've changed the entire story as we know it. (Plenty of Philinda and Skyeward)
1. Chapter 1

Phil Coulson was ready to get back in the field. After Tahiti he felt it was time to return to his job as a level 8 S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. His first assignment form Director Fury: assemble a team of agents with specific skill sets to investigate abnormal objects or activity throughout the world.

He read through the perimeters for this team and recruited the most qualified agents. He needed someone who could assess any biological or chemical matters and someone efficient in engineering. He didn't have to look for very long, the top two graduates of the academy last year fit perfectly. Jemma Simmons and Leopold Fitz: graduated three years early and best friends. The next type of agent needed was a specialist, to be help protect the team while in the field. Luckily, during a conversation with his friend, John Garret, he mention he was looking for one. So Garret offered his protégé, Grant Ward. Ward was was reluctant to join the team claiming that he worked better alone, but Coulson was able to get him onboard. Finally, he needed an agent to fly the plane. His first choice, Melinda May.

The two had a lot of history. But she wasn't who she used to be and he wasn't who he used to be. They both wanted it to be like the old days but that just wasn't happening. So he made her apart of the team; to give her, them, a second chance.

So there they were on the bus. Everyone was settled in and their first mission was assigned. Someone who hacked into S.H.I.E.L.D. had the same cryptographic signatures as a phone that was used to film an enhanced person jump out of a burning building. Their mission: Take in the hacker and investigate what he wants.

Ward and Coulson tracked the hack to a van behind a L.A. diner. They opened the door and found a young woman inside. Neither of them expected the hacker to look like her. Nevertheless, she was still the hacker so Ward but a bag over her head and they brought her into the interrogation room.

Ward removed the bag and sat her in front of a table.

Coulson looked at her. He saw something familiar in her face but he couldn't quite figure it out.

"What's your name?"

"Skye.", she said looking at the two agents who kidnapped her.

"What's your real name?"

'damn' she thought,' these guys are trying really hard to intimidate me'

Throughout the interrogation Skye was able to get under their skin (mostly Ward's). She argued that S.H.I.E.L.D no longer had the right to be keeping so many secrets from the public. Her reasoning made Coulson believe that Skye wasn't a bad kid, she just had trust issues. He felt the need to make her trust them. Which he was able to do.

The situation with the powered person escalated forcing Coulson to let Skye use her skills to contribute to the mission. At the end of the day the problem was solved and everyone was alive. But, Coulson wasn't just going to let Skye leave without offering her a spot on the team. It wasn't just her hacking ability that made him do it, he felt like he naturally felt that she was meant to be there.

The rest of the team had different reactions to his decision to offer her a job. Fitzsimmons were totally onboard with it. They said it was because she was really talented but really it was so that there could be someone younger than them on the bus. Ward completely disapproved. He argued that not only was she apart of an

anti-S.H.I.E.L.D organization, but her style didn't work well with his style. And May? She new exactly what he was doing.

May knocked on the door to Coulson's office.

"Sir?"

"Come in, May. And please, don't call me 'Sir'.

"Right.", she said walking towards the chair in front of his desk,"So you offered her a spot."

"Yup"

"You wanna tell me why you did that?"

"Well, her skills as a hacker give us an extra advantage. And she wasn't trained at S.H.I.E.L.D but she's smart she might be able to bring something new to the way we do things here."

"Ok but everything she's done as a hacker is to uncover our secrets. She might just be here to do exactly that."

"Yes it's definitely a possibility. But you never know."

"Ok come on Phil. I looked at her file. She was brought to an orphanage in 1989 by a S.H.I.E.L.D agent. No one knows where she came from. You think it's her don't you."

Coulson got up immediately to close the door.

"Fine. That's why I offered her the spot."

She looked him shaking her head. "I thought we agreed to stop searching. That she's gone and we should move on."

"Melinda," he said looking away and then back at her with tears in his eyes,"I tried. I really did. But how could I knowing that she might still be out there? I kept looking because I knew the threats this world faces. Why do you think I agreed to join the Avengers initiative? I wanted to save as many lives as possible because one of those lives could have been her. If I couldn't find her at least I knew she was being protected. I get why you did what you did though. It was your way of coping. But I'm not like you and sometimes I wish I was, especially in times like this. That girl downstairs may or may not be her. And I, again, am getting my hopes up knowing how it feels when I'm wrong. You two were the best things that ever happened to me and you were gone. Like a piece of me just wasn't there anymore. So I dedicated my life to putting back those pieces. I'm never gonna give up."

She listed and understood everything he said. But she was upset to hear that he thinks she doesn't feel anything. She stood up to stand right next to him behind his desk.

"Phil, I may seem like I don't feel anything anymore, but I didn't leave because of that; I left because I felt too much. Seeing you dealing with your emotions only made me worse. My natural instinct was to hide it. I didn't want to but I couldn't help myself. When I figured out that you offered her the spot I thought it was happening all over again. But I won't let it. I'm in this with you. I miss the way we were, Phil. It was foolish to give up. We were too good together."

After that sentence they looked into each other's eyes and saw the people they were 25 years ago. The emotions were coming in all at once and all of a sudden reflexes kicked in. They couldn't keep their hands off each other. The urge was just too great. As they kissed they regretted all those years they wasted being confused over their feelings.

In the morning they woke up together on Phil's bed in his office. Melinda's head was on Phil's shoulder while his arms wrapped her body. Phil woke up first. He looked at the woman in his arms and thought about everything. A few minutes later she woke up. Looking up at him smiling.

"I've missed you."

He just looked at her with a slight smile.

"What is it?"

"Nothing just - do you think it's her?"

"Yeah. I do actually."

"Really?"

"It's our Daisy, Phil. I can just feel it."


	2. Chapter 2: the GIRL

Skye was moving in that day. Coulson and May agreed that they wouldn't treat her any differently until they knew she was their daughter for sure. They also agreed that they would be as discreet as possible about their feelings toward each other. So May quickly put on her clothes and snuck down to her bunk.

Coulson watched from the surveillance feed as Skye got out of her van. All she brought was a single bag of clothes and a box of hacking supplies and little knick knacks. If she was his daughter, his worst fear was true. She grew up with nobody who really armed about her. She never fit in and was forced to live this lifestyle. If that one situation never happened her life- their lives- could have been completely different.

Ward walked up to his office door.

"Agent Coulson? A word?"

"Yes Agent Ward."

"I would like to voice my concerns about your decision to let Skye on the bus."

Coulson knew everything Ward was going to say. So he walked out of his office while Ward followed behind him continuing to ' voice his concerns'. As May joined the conversation the three of them gathered around the briefing table.

Very calmly, May said, "We have two kids on this plane who aren't cleared for combat. Your adding a third?"

As Ward kept talking Coulson shot a subtle shocked look towards May. She saw he was confused so she very discreetly winked. She had to show that she disagreed so Ward didn't suspect anything was up.

"At least Fitzsimmons are trained S.H.I.E.L.D scientists. But Skye? You said this was a select team. Assembled to work new protect people. I don't see how letting some hacker tag along-"

"I'm looking for an objection I haven't already anticipated." Coulson said because he was tired of listening to Ward, "I'm calling this. But your frown will be on record."

Coulson saw Fitzsimmons show Skye to her bunk. He finished what he was doing before going to talk to her.

"You could say that again." Skye said as Ward walked away.

"You could say what again?"

"Sweet ride."

This was the first conversation between the two of them where they weren't trying to get secrets out of the other. They were just getting to know each other. Coulson told her about his death and then about his revival and Tahiti. She couldn't believe it but then again this was S.H.I.E.L.D and anything was possible.

But Coulson was tired of talking about him. He wanted to know about her and her past.

"So what about you? Tell me how you got into the hacker lifestyle."

"Well," she said adjusting her self to get ready for the emotions that come with reliving her past, "I'm an orphan. I don't know anything about my parents or where I came from. I lived at an orphanage for the first seven years of my life. After that I went into the foster system. Every person that's tried to take care of me gave up. Friends weren't easy to find since I moved every few months. So I got used to being on my own from a pretty young age. Once high school came around I figured there was no point. Who was gonna pay for my college? No one cared about me enough to do it. So I did everyone a favor and dropped out. Lived on the streets. I thought about my parents a lot. Hoping they were out there missing me as much as I needed them. Wondering what the hell happened when they gave me up- if they had a choice or not.", Coulson could see the pain in her eyes as she looked out the window. He also saw it disappear when she looked back at him. "But one day, I decided to share my story with another guy on the street. He told me the answer was out there, we just have to dig deep. He's the one who got me into the whole 'Rising Tide- freedom of information' thing and that's where I learned computer science. I tried to use my skills to find out what happened to my parents but everything led to redacted files or dead ends- no answers. Once I realized I was stuck I decided to find other secrets, which lead me here." She finished her explanation with a smile that really meant, 'I just gave you a lot of heavy information about myself that might make you feel sorry for me but you really don't have to so I'm showing you that I'm fine'.

"Oh.", Coulson said unable to find any other words. He knew it was her when she mentioned the redacted files. "Skye, you can trust us here. You're apart of this team now, we watch each others backs."

"Thank you, Agent Coulson."

"That's reminds me, now that you are an official consultant there are a few protocols we have to go through before you can come with us into the field."

"Like what?"

"Nothing scary, just a physical and a few forms to fill out. You should go see Simmons as soon as possible. We're about to land in Peru."

"You got it, sir."

 **Hope you guys are liking how it's going so far! Will update very shortly. Questions, Comments and suggestions are encouraged! Thanks for reading :)**


	3. Chapter 3: the SAMPLE

**SLYNNER- lets just say I really liked Skyeward before it blew up (srry bad pun).**

* * *

Coulson walked to the cockpit and leant forward onto the pilot seat where May was sitting.

"Skye's having her physical right now. Once Simmons draws the blood sample I'll slip in and take it."

"Ok, but what are you planning on doing with it. I assumed we were gonna ask Simmons to test it."

"I don't feel comfortable bringing anyone else on this. It's personal. And remember? I took a CSI class at the Academy."

"Oh right. But I seem to remember you only took that class to get credit for graduation."

"Yeah and I seem to remember YOU making fun of me for it. Who's laughing now?"

He took a glance at his tablet showing what Skye and Simmons were doing in the lab.

"Oh hey I better go. Skye just finished on the treadmill."

As he was about to turn around May grabbed his hand.

"Phil, wait."

"What?"

She grabbed his tie at the neck and pulled him into a kiss, squeezing in as much passion as she could as fast as she could. They broke the kiss and look into each other's eyes.

"I love you."

"I love you more", he said before he walked out of the cockpit.

He took two steps, stopped out the door and said, "What am I doing again?"

"The sample."

"Yeah. Right. Thanks."

"Do we really have to do this?" Skye asked in a whiny tone to Simmons.

"Skye its protocol, of course we do."

Coulson walked in and joined the conversation. "What's protocol?"

"Skye doesn't want me to take her blood."

"What do you think we're gonna do with it? Make clones or something?", Coulson said.

"What? No. It's... The needle. I don't like getting poked."

Coulson scoffed.

"Skye, trust me this is nothing. I have been poked before. THIS is nothing compared to that."

Skye knew what he meant by 'poked'.

"Uggh. Fine just do it."

Then, May says over the speaker, "15 minutes to landing."

Skye was still distracted by the message when Simmons quickly stuck the needle in her and extracted the blood."

"Jesus Christ, Simmons!"

"All done! See? It's over."

"It still hurt."

Coulson watched as Simmons put the vile of Skye's blood on her desk.

"Ok you two go strap in upstairs."

"Yes, sir." Simmons said out of reflex.

"Wait what about you sir?"

"Oh, I'm just gonna...", he looked around the room for an excuse and saw Lola outside the lab. "I'm gonna check and make sure Lola's secure. Wouldn't want her rolling away when we land."

Simmons and Skye looked at each other with confused looks and went upstairs. Coulson quickly grabbed the vile off of Simmons' desk. Then, as he was about to turn to go upstairs, he remembered what he said about Lola and thought, 'hey it wouldn't hurt to check'.

 **I know I've been updating fairly quickly but please forgive me if I am not able to update tomorrow. I'm leaving for vacation tonight but I'll try to post asap.**

 **Questions, comments and suggestions are encouraged! Thanks for reading :)**


	4. Chapter 4: the TEST

The mission in Peru took a little longer than expected. The mission was to observe the 084 and determine if it is dangerous. But it turned out that the Peruvian government has known about this weapon or decades and didn't want any other organization in possession of it. When Peruvian Commander Camilla Reyes, an old friend of Coulson, and her men got onto the bus to make sure the 084 didn't make it to S.H.I.E.L.D, the team had to learn how to work together. That resulted in a hole being blown in the brand new plane mid-flight, but it solved the problem.

The mission was over and the team came out with a new found respect for one another. They sat on the end of their plane together and watched the rocket shoot up into space.

Coulson reached his hand into his pocket and felt the glass vile. He saw Skye, looking up at the rocket with pride and then he looked at Melinda.

"Ok. Good work today guys.", since none of them were looking at him he knelt down behind May and whispered, "I have the sample. Meet me in my office in 10."

May walked into his office to see him pacing.

"Oh hey Melinda. I got the sample."

"I know. You told me. Are you nervous?"

"What? No. A little. Can I take some of your blood?"

"Wait. Why can't we use your blood?"

His face overcame with shame.

"Oh my god the needle? You're such a softie."

He smiled in an attempt to be cute. His smile was her ultimate weakness. She could be strapped to a chair being electrocuted for information and not give in. But when Phil looked at her with those blue eyes and that smile, she couldn't resist.

"Uggh. Fine get it over with." ,she said holding her arm out.

"Thank you." ,he said with the smile still on his face.

"Whatever", she said slightly annoyed that he was able to break her again.

After he extracted the blood he put the two samples in a machine and pressed a button.

"Ok done. Now we wait."

"Hold on, that's it? I thought this process would have more steps. Not just putting it in a box and pressing a button."

"Oh. Yeah. You see what happened was... I don't really remember much from that class. But luckily I found this thing in the lab. It even had an instruction manual."

"You realize you've stolen from both Fitz and Simmons and it's only the second week."

"Eh that's ok. I am the boss man after all."

"Don't call yourself that.", May said jokingly. She looked over at the machine scanning the two samples. "How long is that gonna take?"

"It's a prototype so probably like 4-5 hours. How long till we land?"

"Seven hours."

"Perfect." He reached into a drawer and pulled out a bottle of their favorite scotch. "Want some?"

"Ooh yes please."

"So what happened earlier?" ,he said as he poured the drinks, "How did you guys finally get on the same page?"

"I think it was something Skye said to Ward. Something about pieces solving a puzzle. She's not a bad kid, Phil. She's got some good ideas. Even if she isn't Daisy, I could see us getting along."

"Earlier when I was talking to her I asked her about her past and why she joined the rising tide. Melinda, she grew up with no one who actually cared about her. She joined the rising tide in order to find her parents. All this anti-S.H.I.E.L.D stuff she did to get on our radar? That was just her talking for someone else. She was paid to do those things. Her entire life she's searched for someone who cares about her. So you're right. Even if she isn't Daisy, I think we should do our best to not let her down."

She put her head on his shoulder while his arm was on her shoulder. She was reminded of how compassionate he could be sometimes.

"I love you."

"I love you too."

Not long after that they fell asleep on each other, literally. They didn't realize how tired they were after all that almost dying

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 **Questions, comments and suggestions are encouraged! Thanks for reading :)**


	5. Chapter 5: the RESULTS

Melinda woke to the sound of loud, high pitched beeping. She took a glance at her watch and realized that they'd been sleeping for three hours. The machine was done. The light turned green and said, "SCAN COMPLETE". May nudged Phil to wake him up.

"Yes, Captain, I will hold your shield while you punch the bad guys.", he mumbled as he readjusted himself, still asleep.

"Oh my God. Phil!", she said nudging him harder.

Coulson flinched and opened his eyes.

"Oh hey, Melinda. What's up?"

"Captain America? Really?"

"How did you kno-"

"The scan is done."

He jumped off of his seat and started tapping on the machine's control panel. After a series of taps the screen read, results of test:. They were one click away from finding out once and for all of Skye was their daughter.

"Phil, what happened? Why'd you stop?"

"Once I click that button we'll know.", they both stared at the button. "Are you ready?"

She wasn't. And she could tell he was nervous. So she grabbed his hand, looked in him eyes and nodded. "Do it."

He clicked the button with confidence. It look a few seconds to load. Their hearts were pumping, their hands held tight. And then it loaded.

POSITIVE.

At first, there was silence. Their hands gripped even tighter. They both needed to process the information before they could speak. Melinda was the first to take her eyes off of the screen. She turned her head and looked up at Phil, who was still staring at the green letters in shock.

"Phil?"

He slowly turned his head down to look into her eyes. They had a shocked and worried look on their faces. Melinda walked closer to him to pull into a gentle hug.

"We found her."

"Yeah. We did.", May said with a slight laugh.

Phil, was not, laughing. Not even smiling. He still had that worried face. May picked up that they weren't on the same page with this. She pulled away and saw the look on his face.

"What's wrong. Why aren't you happy about this. We... you have been searching for the past 20 plus years. I thought this you would have a more joyous reaction.

"I don't know. I thought I would too. I've been searching for her for, what seems like forever. But I... I can't Melinda. Not after what she told me about her life growing up."

"Phil, there was nothing we could have done. We've been over this before. We moved on."

"I know. But we can't tell her yet."

"What?"

"She needs to know that she can trust us, trust S.H.I.E.L.D. It's a lifestyle. If we tell her we're her parents now she might end up joining and regretting it later. This has to be her choice."

"You're right."

"Believe me. I really want to tell her. But I don't think she's ready to understand why we weren't there when she was growing up."

"So when will we tell her?"

"I don't know. When we agree that she's ready."

The monitor I front of his desk beeped and flashed the words, "Mission Alert". The mood of their conversation changed when the alert reminded them that they still had a job to do.

"Agreed."

"Thank you for understanding, Melinda."

"Of course.", she straightened up her stance and went back to 'agent mode'. "I'll gather the team for mission prep in the common area. 15 minutes."

Coulson couldn't switch personalities that easily like she could, so he saw this as an opportunity to play with it a bit.

"Thank you, Agent May.", he said out of amusement. He leaned in and put his lips on hers. They lost themselves in each other for a minute. The mission alert beeped at a more urgent pitch. They separated, still close, breathing heavily and looking into each other's eyes.

"Our day job beckons, Sir."

"You're dismissed... Agent May."

* * *

 **I LOVE writing this and I hope you enjoy reading it. Questions, comments and suggestions are encouraged! Thank for reading:)**


	6. Chapter 6: the TRUST

**Feeling generous today... might even post next chapter tonight.**

* * *

"What the hell do you mean you have to take another sample!?", Skye said to Simmons as they waited for the mission prep to start.

"Well, you see, the sample kind of... went missing."

"Went missing!?"

"I looked everywhere but it's nowhere to be found."

"Oh my god. First, the poking, then my new S.O training my butt off, now more poking!"

"I'm so sorry Skye. I'm usually very organized."

"It's true.", Fitz said in an attempt to make his new crush (Skye) feel better, "She really is organized."

Coulson walked into the room and heard the conversation. He looked at May who had been sitting there the whole time. She was on the verge of smiling while they were talking about the subject of Skye's blood. She couldn't smile because she never smiled and the team would suspect something. But Phil was smiling, almost laughing. Skye noticed.

"Why are you smiling."

"Oh, uh.. this situation, it reminds me of something. I won't go into detail." He cleared his throat, "We have a new mission."

Coulson told the team what their mission was. An undercover S.H.I.E.L.D truck transporting Dr. Franklin Hall floated up into the Skye and dropped. Their task was to find out what that force was and who put it there.

After visiting the site the team discovered that this event was tide to Quinn Worldwide. The owner, Ian Quinn, was hosting the annual shareholders gathering that weekend. Long story short, Skye was the only one who could carry out the mission at the party. She had no training or knowledge to protect herself with. But she was confident in herself and her street skills.

This, of course made Coulson and May very nervous. But Coulson had to agree with her in order for the rest of the team to believe he had faith in his new consultant.

As Fitz was showing Skye how to use the beacon disguised as a compact mirror, May brought Coulson to the side for a private conversation.

"Coulson... what are you thinking. We just found out it was her and you're gonna send her on a mission alone with no field training to protect herself with? You're her father, how could you put her safety at risk like this?"

"I'm as nervous as you Melinda. Trust me. But I had to let her do this. We agreed to get her to trust S.H.I.E.L.D, trust us before we told her. How can she trust us if she doesn't believe we trust her."

The rest of the team could see them but they couldn't hear what they were talking about. So they had to make it look like they were discussing the mission. It was pretty hard considering the nature of their actual conversation.

"Ok, but she still has no training. How do you expect her to make it through if things don't go as planned?"

"Two operative agents on the team are gonna be close by."

"Phil, I told you when I joined this team that I didn't want to see any field work. And I've already seen more than I bargained for."

"I know. That's why I'm going in with Agent Ward. You forget; I saw plenty of action with the Avengers."

"And you died.", she said after he walked away.

The mission was successful. It didn't go as planned and the outcome wasn't what they thought it would be; but it was successful. Coulson and May were able to see how Skye works. They could see Skye was trusting them more, which meant they could trust her.

But a few weeks after that, the trust was tested. Skye was proven to be tied to a Rising Tide leak in S.H.I.E.L.D. Coulson was torn on what to do about it. He was her father and he loved her. But as far as she knew he was just a S.H.I.E.L.D agent who saw potential in her. So when it was time to talk to her about this he made sure she wanted to be apart of S.H.I.E.L.D and that she was done with the Rising Tide. He didn't want her keeping anymore secrets. So he asked why she really agreed to join the team. Her answer really got to him. She said she joined because the only file she's found remotely close to showing where she came from was redacted by S.H.I.E.L.D.

He couldn't be mad at her for this. He wanted to tell her the truth right then and there, to wrap his arms around her and apologize for the life she had to live. But he didn't. Not yet. He said he'd help her search. But that was all he could do.

Later that night, when everyone was sleeping, Coulson went to visit May in the cockpit.

"How'd things go with Skye?"

"This sucks, Melinda. She's right there. Our daughter! She's living on this plane with us and she doesn't even know who we are."

"I know. But it's what we're doing is necessary to gaining her full trust. It was your idea and I agree with it."

"You're right. But right now I'm lying to her. I've been telling her that I'll help her search for her parents. While she's working her butt off trying to find the tiniest bit of information, I'm over here with the whole story and not telling her."

"She'll understand when we explain. Everything's gonna be ok."

He turned and stroked her face. When he looked at her all his problems seemed irrelevant. He smiled at her, and she smiled back. Without a second thought he pressed the autopilot button, yanked off her headphones and carried her out of the cockpit into his office.

* * *

 **Philinda is real.**

 **Questions, comments and suggestions are encouraged! Thanks for reading:)**


	7. Chapter 7: the HOTEL

The next few weeks were hectic. But that's just how this team worked. Simmons got infected with an alien virus and almost died. Fitz and Ward were blindly sent into a suicide mission but saved by the rest of the team. And the week after that Ward touched an Asgardian staff that brought back some really horrible memories.

This experience made Ward pretty agitated so the team had been given the night off in Dublin, so he went to the bar for a drink. Skye had the same idea.

"Hey," Skye said as she walked up to Ward sitting alone at the bar. "I could get used to turn down service and little mints on my pillow."

"Over nights aren't standard." Ward said jokingly while taking a swig of his drink.

"We deserve a nice night. You especially. How you feeling?"

"Not great. I'm sorry. For before I'm.. I'm not that guy."

"You're a guy who saves lives I can overlook a little Hulk rage. No harm no foul."

"Does everything just roll of your back?"

"No, if it helped I'd rage all the time. But it doesn't."

"Skye, what I saw... it was about my brother."

"I figured." she leaned forward and grabbed his hand, "I know your not one to talk but, like I said I'm here. My shoulder's free."

"Thank you Skye. But maybe some other time. I think I'm gonna go take a walk, see the city."

"Ok well, you know where I live."

Ward went on his walk. After seeing Dublin's beautiful buildings and artwork he still couldn't get that memory out of his head. The memory he'd kept hidden for many years. He wandered mindlessly around the city, somehow managing to end up back at the door of his hotel room with a bottle of whiskey.

He just stood there. Thinking about her. Skye. Why didn't he stay and talk? And why couldn't he stop thinking about her? He looked over at her door, which was right next to his. He walked over to knock, which wasn't something he'd normally do, but he was vulnerable. He didn't have any idea what he was going to do once she opened the door. Just as he raised his fist to knock, he heard a voice behind him.

"Are you planning on sharing that?", Skye said looking at the bottle of whiskey.

He turned around and looked at her. Without a second thought he walked over and kissed her. Something he'd been wanting to do since they first had that talk in Peru.

Skye was pinned against the hallway wall when she broke away.

"Grant.."

"I'm sorry I shouldn't have-"

"No it's not that. Um. The rest of the team."

"Don't worry. They're all on a different floor."

They smiled at each other and stumbled into her room. This wasn't how either of them thought this night was gonna go but they were glad that it did.

Meanwhile two floors below them:

"Come in!"

May walked into Coulson's room to find him laying on his bed wearing one of those hotel bathrobes next to a bottle of wine in an ice bucket. She laughed out loud .

"You look ridiculous."

"Would it help if I told you I'm not wearing anything under it?" ,he said while pouring wine into their glasses.

"Definitely", she took a sip of the wine, "Damn that's good. But what's the occasion?"

"I figured we deserved a nice night, to be ourselves. No hiding. And to celebrate finding her. Besides when was the last time we did anything like this."

"It has been a while.", she said as she sat on the bed next to him.

"18 years." ,he held her hand and stared at it shaking his head, "that's how long it's been Melinda. And even though I would give anything for that day to never have happened; I'm glad you're here with me and I'm glad we found Daisy. I just wish she knew."

"Soon, Phil. Soon."

She was never one to talk. So she just let her lips show how she felt. He didn't mind this at all. Ever since they figured out they found their daughter a weight was lifted off their shoulders. They were definitely able to enjoy themselves a little bit more.

In the morning Melinda woke to the sound of the shower turning on. She smiled when she remembered who was in the shower. She was already naked so she jumped straight in with him.

"Good Morning." ,she said turning him around to kiss him.

"Sorry, didn't want to wake you."

"It's ok I like this."

"I'm glad."

Meanwhile two floors above:

Ward holds Skye in his arms as they lay on the bed in her hotel room. He wakes up first, delighted to see the beautiful woman laying at his chest. Skye began to wake. She looked up and saw the handsome man smiling at her.

"Hi"

"Hi"

"That was nice."

"Yes. But it wasn't what I meant when I suggested when I said we should 'talk'."

They laughed and Ward pulled her into a kiss.

"I'm glad this happened. I don't know if you noticed but I'm not one to show my feelings."

"Oh really" she said sarcastically.

"The staff didn't only show me my brother. I saw you.", his voice started to break, "I'm used to pushing those feelings aside, Skye. But with you. It was too hard. Those feelings weren't meant to stay hidden."

"You are so cute when you open up, you know that?"

* * *

 **As I said in the summary Coulson and May being Skye's parents changes the entire story as we know it! In 1x08 (The Well) Ward ended up sleeping with May. BUT HERE May was busy with Coulson. So Skyeward was born early YAY.**

 **Questions, comments and suggestions are encouraged! Thanks for reading :)**


	8. Chapter 8: the BRIDGE

"Here's your tea, Fitz.", Simmons said as she walked into the lab.

"Uggh, yes! Thank you Jemma. Just the way I like it. You're the best."

"I know."

Ward and Skye were outside on the cargo ramp training.

"So I had a breakthrough on that project we've been wor-"

He was interrupted by a loud laughter let out by Skye outside the lab. Fitzsimmons turned to see Ward behind the punching bag while Skye hit it. They were not only surprised to see Skye not miserable during training, but Ward was laughing with her.

"Well that's peculiar.", Simmons said before she took a sip of her tea.

"This whole weeks been peculiar. Haven't you noticed?"

"Noticed what?"

"Everyone on the teams been acting weird. They'd start laughing with each other and then when we look over they stop laughing. Or sometimes during a briefing, Skye would say something and Coulson and May look at each other and have a mental conversation. There's something they're not telling us, Jemma."

Ward and Skye entered the lab. Both sweaty and out of breath.

"Hey Simmons. Do you wanna watch a scary movie later?"

"I don't know, I get scared easily."

"Oh you should watch Paranormal Activity. Not scary at all.", Fitz said winking at Skye.

"Ok fine. I'll make us a healthy snack while you take a shower because you smell awful."

"Ok I'll go take a shower.", she looked at Ward smiling and raising her eye brows.

Ward cleared his throat, "I think I'm gonna go.. take a nap."

Just as they were about to get undressed Coulson's voice sounded over the intercom.

"Dai-Skye. I please come to my office."

"Dammit Coulson.", said Ward.

Skye pressed the button and spoke into the intercom.

"Gimme ten minutes, AC. Ward's training has me smelling like a donkey fart."

"Copy that. And TMI Skye."

"Donkey Fart. Sexy."

"Thanks but you gotta go. If I don't get up there in ten minutes he'll make me do inventory again"

"Fine." ,he said pouting as he turned to leave.

"Grant?"

"Yeah Skye?" ,quickly turning around thinking shed ask him to stay.

"Make sure you take a shower after me. You smell worse."

Skye walked into Coulson's office with no makeup and wet hair.

"What's up AC?"

He did a double take when he looked up at her. He could believe what he was seeing. She had the same natural beauty that made him fall in love with her mother.

"Sir?"

"Oh yeah.. I did some more digging into where you came from." ,he held up a folder.

"Oh my god."

"Coulson we got a hit on-" ,she stopped when she saw Skye and the look on her face. "Sorry is this a bad time?"

"No May you can stay. Skye, May was actually the one who found this information."

"Oh I was actually hoping to keep this between us."

"You can trust me Skye. Read it."

May sat in the chair next to Skye.

More than half of the report was blacked out but she was able to understand.

"A S.H.I.E.L.D agent dropped me off at St. Agnes?"

"I know it's not much information but-"

"No, no it's fine. Thank you both so much. You have no idea what this means to me."

May put her hand on Skye's shoulder.

"It's no problem, Skye. Really."

Skye continued to look at the file. She had tears in her eyes and a look of disbelief. Coulson and May felt awful. Seeing how she reacts to the tiniest bit of information showed them how desperate she's been to learn about where she came from all her life.

"Skye? Are you ok?" ,Coulson said to break the silence.

"Yeah. I'm fine. This is just a lot to take in."

"Well we're not done yet, Skye. There's more to uncover."

"I think I need a minute alone.", she said standing up with her hands shaking. "Thank you both. You don't even know how much this means to me."

As soon as she left his sight, Coulson covered his face with his hands and let out a giant 'UGGH'.

"I know.", said May.

"I think we should tell her after this mission, Melinda."

"You really think she's ready?"

"These past few weeks I've been seeing a change in her attitude. She's focused on becoming an agent. And you can tell she trusts us. Besides, we can't hide it forever."

"You're right. I just hope she isn't mad at us for what happened."

"Me too Melinda."

LINE

(1x10 the bridge)

This mission was supposed to be somewhat easy. But, of course, it wasn't. The girl in the flower dress kidnapped Mike Peterson's son. They threatened to murder him if Mike didn't turn himself in. There was no way out of it. The Girl in the flower dress, Raina, was very specific: one wrong move and Ace dies. They had no choice. Mike was never going to risk his son's life like that so he agreed.

Coulson and May rode to the meeting sight in a separate car, one that was suitable for a child.

"I don't like this, Phil."

"There would be something wrong with you if you did."

"Something feels off. I just want this to be over."

"Me too. But I can relate to Mr. Peterson. A father would do anything for his child.", he said as he looked at his tablet that showed the selfie Skye took with him during their last game night. "Plus once we finish this mission we can finally tell her. Just think about that."

They arrived at the meeting sight a few minutes before the rest of the team.

"You're right. I just... let me escort him out to the exchange."

"Mr. Peterson requested me, and I'm comfortable with that. And if things go south, I need you back here taking point on the team." She shot one of her signature blank expressions at him. "Don't worry Melinda! Everything's gonna be fine. Come here."

He gave her the type of hug he knew would get her to ease up. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed the top of her head. They had to quickly break away when they heard the other van roll up next to their car.

"Ok. Let's go. Ward is in position."

"I'll be careful. Melinda. See you in a few minutes."

May watched as Coulson walked Mr. Peterson toward Raina and her super soldiers.

"Let me know when I can activate coms and tracker", said Fitz from the back seat. May was too focused on Coulson to respond.

May, Skye, Simmons and Fitz couldn't hear what was happening during the exchange; they could only watch and guess what was happening. After a few minutes of talking, Raina said something that made Mike strangle her throat.

"Oh my God what is happening over there?"

"I don't know, Skye."

Coulson put his hand on Mike's shoulder and talked him down. Raina signaled for Ace to be let out of the car. Ace ran and jumped into his father's arms.

"Oh thank God. I have no stomach for this.", said Simmons as she and the rest of them watched in suspense.

To their surprise Mike and his son started to walk back to the cars.

"Wait what's happening? Why is Coulson staying behind?", Fitz said with a look of pure confusion. Skye, without hesitation, jumped out of the car and met Mike and Ace in front of the car. Mike handed Ace to Skye and started to run back to Raina and Coulson.

Ward was on the roof waiting to take the shot if necessary. "Guys what the hell is going on? Their taking Coulson!"

Soon Fitzsimmons and May got out of the car too. But as they were about to run after Mike- the tanker truck, right next to Mike, exploded.

"Where's Coulson!?"

Then there was another explosion, followed by a helicopter firing shots all over the place.

"What just happened?"

"Coulson's gone."

* * *

 **Things are about to get interesting. Stay tuned!**

 **Questions, comments and suggestions are encouraged! Thanks for reading :)**


	9. Chapter 9: the MACHINE

May stood there in shock. He said he'd see her in a few minutes. That the mission was almost over. That when they finished they would tell Skye that they are her parents. It wasn't supposed to go down like this.

A million thoughts went though her mind:

Why did they take him?

I thought the plan was for them to take Mike.

What do they want from him?

He was looking forward to telling Skye. Now he has to wait.

Is he gonna die?

No. He can't. Not again.

All of a sudden she saw the rest of the team looking at her.

"What now?", asked Fitz.

She couldn't think all she could see was the look on Skye's face. It was filled with tears and fear and confusion. But she had to think. He told her if things go south she has to take charge of the team. So she did.

"Fitz, Simmons go take care of Ward I think he got hit. Take the van back to the bus when you're done."

"Yes ma'am"

"Skye you and I will take Ace back to the bus and we'll contact HQ."

Skye picked up Ace and sat him down in the backseat of the car.

"Skye, where's my dad?"

"He's fine sweetie. Don't worry. You just need to stay strong right now ok?", she knew he was a smart kid so there was no use in lying to him. But she wasn't going to tell him either. The best choice was to distract him. "Do you like spongebob?"

"Yeah."

She made a few taps on her tablet and handed it to him.

"You can watch this during the car ride.", she put a pair of giant headphones over his head so he couldn't hear anything but the video.

She sat in the front passenger seat next to May.

"May, what the hell is going on? Is Coulson ok? Oh my god. What are we gonna do?"

Skye was in a state of panic. Tears were flowing down her face and she couldn't stay still.

"Skye. Skye, calm down ok? Breathe. I don't know what we're gonna do."

"How are you so calm about this. I'd think out of all people you'd be the one freaking out."

"Sk-, what do you-"

"I see how you look at each other. I may not be a super spy but I can read people. You two care about each other."

May was speechless. She was almost relieved that she figured it out on her own.

"You're a smart kid, Skye. Which is why I need your help on this case. Once we get to HQ their main focus won't be on finding Coulson. It'll be on shutting down centipede. So that's why I need you to do anything you can to find him."

"Coulson's a good man. I know he'd do the same for me.", Skye said as the pulled into the cargo hold of the bus. May shifted the gear to park.

"Thank you, Skye."

"And May? Don't worry I won't tell anyone."

* * *

There were a lot of changes over the next 36 hours. The bus was commanded by Agent Hand and there were at least thirty more agents onboard. Fitzsimmons started to get annoyed with all of the new scientist in their lab not obeying their very precise systems. Ward was reminded why he didn't enjoy working with other people. May was second in command. And Skye hid away in her bunk so she could hack away without anyone watching over her shoulder.

Skye had a question about the centipede soldiers so she left her bunk and looked for May. She found May in front of the briefing table and walked toward her. It wasn't until it was too late that she realized May was in the middle of a meeting with 10 other agents; including agent Hand.

"Oh I'm sorry I didn't realize you were in the middle of-"

"You're the consultant? The one Coulson invited?", Hand interrupted.

"Yes."

"I want you off this plane."

Hand walked away while Skye was still trying to process what she just said.

"Woah woah wait. Your just kicking me out?"

"You're a distraction and your gone."

"I know I'm not some bad ass field agent like May or Ward but I can still contribute. All this protocol crap doesn't matter to me all that matters to me is Coulson."

"Hand, I know Skye's methods are unorthodox but she is apart of this team"

"Agent May, your professional opinion. Will this girl be any help on this plane"

"No"

Skye shot her a confused look. May winked, showing that this was the plan all along.

"These agents will escort you out Skye."

"I'll do it. I'm her S.O"

* * *

May ended up being right. Skye was able to locate where they we're keeping Coulson; something she wouldn't be able to do with a bunch of agents watching her every move. The team told Hand about Skye's hunch. But, as expected, she wasn't willing to send her men out there for a hunch. So the team took matters into their own hands and met Skye there alone.

The sight was an old bombing village, filled with fake houses and mannequins.

"Where's Skye? She should've been here by now", said Ward trying not to seem to worried.

Just after he said that, Skye rolls up in a really expensive car looking badass.

"Hey guys."

"Skye how did you-"

"Doesn't matter. There are super soldiers crawling all over this place and we need to find Coulson. We should spit up."

Simmons looked behind her and found a super soldier.

"I got this", said Ward as he took out his weapon.

"Ok the rest of us: split up and sweep this entire place."

The team ran all over the place; simultaneously fighting super soldiers and searching for Coulson.

Skye heard Coulson's scream from inside a house.

"May! I found him!"

Raina saw Skye and stood up.

"Its for his own good."

Skye didn't care what she had to say so she punched her in the face and knocked her out.

"Let me die! Please I'm begging you, let me die!"

"Oh my God, Coulson."

She went to the control panel to try to turn the machine off but it nothing was working. May found the power cord and yanked it out of its socket.

Coulson was still crying and screaming. So Skye grabbed his hands.

"Come back Coulson, come back."

"Skye-"

* * *

Raina was taken to the Fridge and the centipede project was eliminated.

That night May went to Coulson's office.

"Come on, Phil. I heard what you were saying."

"Melinda trust me. I'm fine. It wasn't real."

"Maybe not. But you still felt it."

"Yes I did. And I don't feel like talking about it yet."

"Ok when you're ready."

"Thank you. Now I believe we were planning on doing something after this mission."

"Right. Call her up."

He picked up his phone and pressed the intercom button.

"Skye? Agent May and I would like to see you in my office please."

* * *

 **Get ready for the next chapter because it's about to get real.**

 **Questions, comments and suggestions are encouraged! Thanks for reading :)**


	10. Chapter 10: the TALK

**Sorry for the semi-long wait. Here it is! The long awaited talk: enjoy!**

* * *

"Really? He was saying that?"

"I'm telling you, Grant. He was begging to die. I'm really worried about him."

"Well, Coulson as tough as they come, so do get too worried."

"Skye, Agent May and I would like to see you in my office please."

"Oh my God. What did you do this time. They both wanna see you? Usually it's just Coulson."

"I didn't do anything. I know what this is about."

Skye walked from the kitchen to Coulson's office with a smile on her face. Total confidence. At first when she got there they didn't realize she was there. May was sitting on Coulson's desk with her back facing to door while he was in his leather seat. She could see there was a slight nervousness to Coulson's face.

"Knock knock?"

"Oh hey Skye. Come in.", Coulson said as he gestured for her to sit.

"What's up AC, May?"

"We need to talk to you about something"

Skye could tell they were nervous.

"Don't worry I know what this is about."

"You do?"

"Yeah. You two are worried that I'm gonna tell the rest of the team that you to are a couple and that you occasionally do it on the bus."

Coulson looked at May shocked. May was smiling.

"Oh yeah I forgot to tell you. She knows."

"Yeah I got that. thanks."

"Don't worry, AC. I'll keep your secret. Now are we done here or…"

May walked over to close the door.

"Actually Skye, that's not what we wanted to talk to you about."

"We wanted to talk to you about your parents."

Skye's face turned serious.

"Oh did you… did you-"

"Find them? Yeah."

Skye put her hands on her mouth to hide her jaw dropping.

"Before we tell you, you should know that none of it was your fault. No one wanted this to happen to you."

"I need to know. I have been waiting for as long as I can remember and it's all I've ever wanted."

Coulson and May looked at each other to assure that they were ready. Coulson started.

"Skye, you're parents were S.H.I.E.L.D agents."

"As you saw with Mr. Peterson, raising a child while you're an agent isn't easy. Ace was kidnapped to lure Mike"

"They were determined to make it work with you."

"And it did, for the first year of your life, you were surrounded by a happy family."

"But..", said Skye knowing the bad part was about to come.

"But bad guys like to ruin that sort of thing" said May.

"Your father dealt with a lot of bad people and a lot of them swore to hurt him in the worst ways possible if they ever found him again." Coulson never liked reliving this memory but if he was ever going to tell it again, this would be the time. "He never thought much about it. But one day, when he took you out for a walk, one of his enemies saw him. He followed you guys back to your house and just watched. Watched and waited for the perfect moment. Your mom worked late that night so it was just you two. When you and your father were sleeping the guy snuck in and took you."

Skye couldn't look at him. It was too real this man was telling her everything she's ever needed to hear.

May could tell Skye was overwhelmed.

"Skye, do you want to finish this story later?"

She wiped her tears and sat up. She needed to hear all of it now.

"I'm fine, please, go on."

This talk was killing Coulson. Every time he thought about this event it woke up a rage inside him that made him want to punish himself for it.

"S.H.I.E.L.D agents searched and eventually they were able to find you. But the director at the time didn't want your parents to keep you. He told them that if they wanted to keep you out of danger they'd have to give you up. But they were never willing to do that they loved you too much."

May could tell Coulson was starting to get emotional. He couldn't get emotional, not yet. So she continued the story.

"But one day, when your mother went to pick you up at the babysitter you weren't there. The director ordered men to take you to a orphanage far away. When your parents found out they were furious. So furious that they were able to get the world council to fire the director and the agents involved in your kidnapping."

"They searched and searched for years. But you were nowhere to be found. All they wanted to have you back home with them. to live the life that you deserved."

Skye was bent over in her chair with her hands over her face. May grabbed Coulson's and and nodded at him.

"We loved you, Skye."

For a moment there was silence. Coulson and May held their breath waiting for Skye to react. Slowly her hands pulled away from her face to look at them.

"We- you're my-"

"Deep down I think you knew."

"I was too afraid to hope."

* * *

 **Will update shortly!**

 **Questions, comments and suggestions are encouraged! Thanks for reading:)**


	11. Chapter 11: the MORNING AFTER

Skye stood up and paced the room while May and Coulson watched her nervously waiting for her to say something. After watching her walk back and forth multiple times, Coulson had to say something.

"Skye, are you-"

"You're my dad!?", she interrupted.

"Yea. And she's your mom."

"This is just a lot to take in. Like, a lot."

Coulson looked at his watch and saw that it was 12:45am.

"Ok. It's late. We should just talk about this in the morning or something."

"Yeah that sounds good. You should get some sleep, Skye."

Skye walked slowly out of the room without saying anything.

"Oh god. I think my heads gonna explode Melinda. And I just came out of a mind torturing machine."

She put her softly massaged the back of his neck with her hand.

"You did great, Phil. We just need to see how she handles it."

"You're right."

"Ok. I'm beat. Goodnight.", she got up to leave when Coulson grabbed her arm.

"You can't leave. I just returned from a kidnapping don't you wanna 'welcome me back'"

"Phil, I just spent three sleepless days searching the world for you. I'm tired."

"Fine. Goodnight. Love you."

"I know."

"Dammit Melinda. You know it turns me on when you use Star Wars references."

########################################################

"Skye. Skye wake up."

Skye woke to Ward shaking her in her bunk.

"Gr-Grant what are you-"

"What happened to you last night? You said you were gonna come to my bunk to watch The Walking Dead. After you talked to Coulson and May."

"Oh yeah uh. Sorry. We need to talk."

She pressed the button that made the bunk soundproof and told Ward everything Coulson and May told her. She trusted him. She wanted his opinion on it.

"I don't know how I feel about this, Grant. They're my parents and I know it wasn't their fault but for some reason I'm still blaming them for my messed up childhood."

"I'm dating my commanding officer's daughter?!"

"Grant, come on."

"Sorry. From what I hear, they really loved you. They didn't mess up your childhood, Skye. Take it from me. MY parents messed up my childhood. Coulson and May were actually trying to give you a happy life."

"Thanks Grant." She let herself fall back into her bed. "I'm exhausted. All this information is hurting my brain."

"What are you gonna do?"

"I need to talk to Coulson. He seemed to feel the most responsible"

Skye walk out of her bunk and made her way to May's bunk. Just as she was gonna knock May opened the door.

"Oh. Good morning, May."

"Good morning Skye."

"Can we finish that talk now. With Coulson?"

"Of course."

###########################################################

Coulson woke up that morning immediately remembering what took place the night before. The fact that he just found out that his memories were replaced didn't phase him. At least not as much as the fact that he just told his long lost daughter that he was her long lost father.

"Phil.", said as she walk into his office.

"Hey.", he said still laying down. Skye walked in and he shot right on onto his feet. "Skye"

"Hey AC. I was wondering if you guys wanted to finish that talk.

############################################################

They sat and talked. Coulson told Skye all about how loosing her caused him and May to split up and how they never stopped searching.

"So, at , all those kids pray that their pray that their parents are out there searching for them. You we're?"

"Yeah.", Coulson said.

"We'll make up for all of it right, Phil?"

"Right. But uh.. First, should we tell the rest of the team?"

"Oh um, about that. I kinda already told Ward."

Coulson and May looked at each other confused.

"Why would you.. Why did you.." May couldn't get her words out.

"Well you see, we're kind of.. A thing."

Coulson couldn't believe what he just heard his daughter say. She was dating one of his agents. He had a strange urge to walk out of the office and punch Ward in the face. But then he realized that he had no right to since he was also dating someone on the team.

"Well I guess I have to ignore protocol and let you guys keep doing what your doing since I am doing the same."

May loved seeing his defensive paternal side.

"Then that just leaves Fitz and Simmons."

"Let's just tell them. Might as well."

"Don't worry I got this." Skye said as she walked out of the office.

"So Ward.", May said raising her eyebrows and crossing her arms.

"Ward."

"How do you feel about that?"

"I know he's a good guy but as soon as she told me I wanted to hurt him."

"Yup you're her father alright"

* * *

 **Please tell me what you would like to see for these characters in the next few chapters.**

 **Questions, comments and suggestions are encouraged! Thanks for reading:)**


	12. Chapter 12: the GETAWAY

"Ohhhh that explains a lot.", Fitz said in response to to learning that Coulson and May are Skye's parents and that her and Ward were a thing.

"Yeah. We thought you guys were keeping some big S.H.I.E.L.D secret from us. But this is way better."

"And we know how much you've been wanting to find out where you came from. We're happy for you."

Fitz, Simmons and Skye had a sort of sibling-like relationship. The entire team just naturally felt like a big family. Coulson and May were mom and dad, Ward was the tough older brother, the three of them were the younger triplets.

So Skye had no problem opening up to them.

"Thanks you guys. I'm glad I can finally tell you about this.", after that sentence Ward walked into the lab. "Hey Grant good news. Everyone on the team knows everything now."

"Everyone?"

"Yup."

"Coulson too?"

"Yup. No more secrets. Isn't that great? Everything is out in the open. Right?"

"Yeah. Everything is out there. Everything."

Ward left the lab with slightly worried expression on his face. The three of them saw it and burst out laughing.

May walked into the lab to run some diagnostics on the monitor.

"So I hear we're going to the Academy."

"Yeah a the pool froze over. Pretty cool."

"Fitz, the cadet could've died."

May turned around and said, "Oh Skye your staying behind with me and Coulson. We need you on another mission."

"Dammit it really wanted to see the Academy" she said in a British accent.

"Awful accent."

* * *

Ward, Fitz and Simmons left the plane to access the situation. Leaving the reunited family all alone on the bus.

"So what's this mission about?"

"Oh there's no mission. We thought the three of us could use a little break."

"Ok then where are we going."

"Take it as a thank you for saving my life and a sorry for your messed up childhood."

"Aw thanks. So where are we going?"

"Wisconsin. I have a house up there. We can stay there for a few days."

"Uggh."

"C'mon Melinda Wisconsin's not that bad."

"What ever you say."

The three of them drove up to a big two story house in the suburbs of Wisconsin. Coulson, being the nice guy he was, carried all three of their bags at once. Once they got inside he plopped the bags on the floor with a big smile on his face.

"Welcome to Wisconsin."

"To be honest, I didn't picture you having a secret house in the suburbs."

"And you were right to think that. I got this house when my mom passed away a few years ago. I grew up here."

"Talk about messed up childhoods."

"May doesn't like the suburbs."

"Of course I do. The neighbors are overly friendly, it's too sunny, and you have to be nice back. I like it in the city. Everyone is rude and the tall buildings cover all the sun."

Skye and Coulson looked at each other. They could both tell that May was getting a bit worked up. Some one had to change the subject.

"I don't really mind the suburbs. It's nice seeing the kids playing in the front lawn."

This didn't really ease the awkwardness. If anything it made it worse.

"Ok, um I'm gonna make us some dinner you guys should go unpack."

* * *

"So whatcha cooking AC?"

"Ribs and my mother's famous Mac and cheese. Although it probably won't be be as good as hers. Don't get your hopes up."

"Aww come on it looks good."

May walked into the kitchen while she was on the phone with Ward. She put the phone on speaker without him knowing.

" _Many were injured in the storm. But the only death was of the kid who designed the machine. The other kid is being taken to the sandbox."_

"How are you guys. Any of you hurt?"

" _No we're fine. Just a couple of bruises."_

"Ok. We'll be on mission for a couple more days. Just stay at the Academy until we get back."

" _Great. I'll get to be Fitz and Simmons' body guard while the little cadets try to take a picture with them."_

"I'm sure you can manage.", said Coulson to Ward's surprise.

Ward cleared his throat.

" _Thank you sir. Um.. Can I talk to Skye?"_

Coulson looked at her and she had her hand over her mouth to keep from laughing too loud.

"No you may not. Over."

He hung up just as Ward was about to say something.

"You know he's afraid of you right."

"Trust me. He's right to be."

"Wow."

"Skye, I lost you once. Actually twice. I'm not gonna let anyone else hurt you."

"Wards not gonna hurt me. What we have- I can't really explain it but it feels real."

"Ok. But I just wanna make sure he knows what I'm capable of."

"What ever. Just make your Mac and cheese."

* * *

The rest of the vacation was great. They spent that time to completely catch up with each other. Asking each other any and all the questions that they needed answered. But there was one in particular that stuck out.

"So you guys must've had a name for me before all this happened."

May smiled at this question. She was the one who picked her name.

"Yah. We did. It was Daisy Lian."

"Daisy Lian- Coulson?"

"Yeah."

"That's pretty."

"I thought so too. Lian is my mother's name and daisies are my favorite."

It was their last night at the house before they returned to the bus.

"Thanks for taking me here. It means a lot that you guys care enough about me to do that."

"It's the least we could do."

"I think it's time for me to clock out. All that cooking makes me tired."

"Me too. All that eating makes me tired.", said May with a smirk on her face.

They were on their way upstairs when Skye said, "Night Mom, night Dad."

They froze and turned around.

"Is that ok. Can I call you that."

"That's perfect."

* * *

 **Questions, comments and suggestions are encouraged! Thanks for reading:)**


	13. Chapter 13: the WOUNDING

It had been about six months since Skye joined the team. In that time the team grew closer, the began to care about each other more. They had no trouble being on the same page when they were on a mission because of that personal friend relationship they'd grown on the bus.

Skye was so grateful that she said yes to Coulson when he offered her this job. And not only because she fell in love with Ward and found her parents, but because she found S.H.I.E.L.D, a place that she could see herself having a future in. She was always the most determined when we're on a mission. Sometimes a little too determined.

The force that they've been fighting to stop ever since their first mission, was Centipede. An organization run by billionaire Ian Quinn. At this point, this far into their search for him they would do anything to find him. And one day, they found a opening.

Skye and Coulson finally got at hit and presented it to the team.

"Ian Quinn", said Coulson as he pulled up Quinn's magazine cover on the monitor.

"You found him?"

"No, but we think we know how we can. Skye tracked down an invoice from one of his Shell companies. He made a big purchase recently."

"10 Million dollars big."

"Any idea what it is?", asked Simmons.

"No clue but it was designed and built by Cybertek Inc., a small firm that deals I'm advance technology and research."

"Which is where this gets interesting. They've hired a private-security outfit to transfer the purchase- former military, ex-mercs."

"Lot of muscle to move one package.", said Ward suspiciously.

"And they know S.H.I.E.L.D's got their eyes on Quinn."

"Which is why they're transporting it old-school."

"On a train, through the Italian countryside, from Verona to Zagreb- very rural, very isolated."

"And you think Quinn's on that train?", May assumed.

"No, us I believe they're delivering the item to Quinn himself. We got our Intel from Italian authorities who have been monitoring the situation."

"And they don't mind us taking over the op?"

"I asked very nicely. If everything goes as planned, Cybertek's security team won't even know we were on the train."

"So we're going in undercover."

"I hate undercover.", May said much to Coulson's delight.

"May and Ward you're front and center. Once we locate the package, you'll tag it with a tracker. Skye and Fitz, you'll be running communications. After the package is tagged we'll follow it to Quinn. Once we capture Quinn, we'll be one rep closer to the Clairvoyant."

Simmons asked, "And what about the two of us, sir?"

"You and I will stay with the passengers and update the team if the men advance. Ok every one knows what they're doing? May, what's our ETA?"

"To Italy? About 4 hours."

"Ok I want everyone ready by then."

* * *

They each boarded the plane with their partners. As usual he mission was going great in the beginning. Everyone established their covers and did their jobs. But somehow the Cybertek team knew Coulson's team was there. It had to be the Clairvoyant. The team wasn't prepared for this situation. Coulson and Ward were made and chased off the plane by he Cybertek team. They thought the train vanished when really they were hit with a powerful dendrotoxin that froze their minds. May also got off the train when she saw that Coulson and Ward were down. She went to help them but she was kidnapped. When the men woke up they headed back to the plane to find the train.

After Ward and Coulson were done trying to use the holotable, Ward felt the need to clear up a few things.

"Sir, I know it may not me the best time, but this is probably the only time we have some real privacy."

"What is it Agent Ward."

"I wanted to talk about what Skye told you- about us."

"You wanna do this now? Ok. You are currently in a serious relationship with my daughter. You make her very happy I give you that. But if you hurt her in any way, I'll have you reassigned to Barrow, Alaska and you'll spend the rest of your years pulling the night guarding Blonsky's cryo-cell. Understood?"

"Yes sir. I just wanted to let you know that I do love her. And until now I didn't know what that word meant. I guess what I'm trying to say is that if I ever hurt her, I deserve to be punished. Also, I admire what you're doing- I can tell you really care about her well being."

"Thanks."

"So how'd you trick director Fury and go on a vacation when you said it was a mission?"

"I didn't have to trick him. Fury and I go way back. He's Skye's godfather."

"Wow."

"Yup. Let's focus on finding the team."

"Right."

Just as he said that, Russo showed up.

"Agent Coulson, it's going to be alright we found your people. The train its-"

He couldn't his sentence because May snuck up behind him and threw a knife in his back.

"Wheels up in 5"

"Are you ok? You were on the train when it disappeared."

"May Russo was- explain yourself, please."

"The train didn't disappear, Russo sold us out.", she looked at Ward, "Get the plane ready. I need a shower."

S.H.I.E.L.D. was able to find the train. When May, Ward and Coulson got to the plane they found Simmons but couldn't find Fitz and Skye. After a while Fitz activated a tracker to let the rest of the team know that they followed the package to a mansion. When the team got there, they were able to find Fitz, but Skye was no where to be found. Fitz said she went inside to stop Quinn.

Ward barged into the mansion hitting anyone in sight.

Quinn tried to get away but Coulson was there to stop him. When Coulson pinned Quinn against the table he saw that there was blood on his hands.

He held the gun to his throat.

"Where's Skye?"

"You know Agent Coulson it's dangerous to keep sending her in like that. All alone. Especially when she means so much to you. I know what a father would do to protect his daughter."

Coulson knew Skye was in trouble and that Quinn did it. So he punched him in the face.

"Search the house. Find her. Now!"

The team ran through the house searching every room. Nothing. Coulson and May were getting anxious. Where the hell is she? Coulson ran down to the basement floor. He barged into a room and found a giant high tech chamber. But then he saw something on the floor to his right. It was Skye. Blood all over. There was no color in her face and she was unconscious.

"Oh God. Skye.", he couldn't think. His daughter was dying in his arms. "Melinda! Simmons! Get down here! Just hang on, Skye. Just hang on."

The rest of the team rushed in. Simmons immediately checked on her.

"Oh my god, Skye. Phil-"

Ward fell to his knees in front of her.

"No. Skye. Not you. Not now."

"She's lost too much blood I don't know-" Simmons looked around the room and saw the chamber. "Put her in there."

"Do we even know what this thing is?"

"It's a hyperbaric chamber and I said put her in there."

They put her in the machine and Fitz put it to a setting that should stabilize her body pressure. They were able to keep her alive in that chamber so they brought her onto the bus to take her to a S.H.I.E.L.D. trauma center.

"Her core temperature is hovering around 44 degrees Fahrenheit. If we don't bring her back up to temp in the next few hours she could sustain permanent brain damage. We need to get her to a medical facility and fast. Until then, I'll do everything I can to keep her alive. Excuse me." Simmons walked out trying her best to keep it together and Fitz followed. Ward went to the cargo ramp and started hitting the punching bag.

That left May and Coulson in the lab alone with their daughter. Coulson was feeling too many emotions to show any. He just stood there staring at her. Where as May could not hold it together. She couldn't hold back the tears while she put her head on the glass of the chamber. Coulson walked over and put his arms around her. Facing her away from Skye while he had a clear view.

"Phil, w-we can't loose her. She just came b-back. I can't take it if she-", may lost her words.

"We-we won't, Melinda. Ok? She'll be fine."

He was just saying what she needed to hear. He didn't know what was gonna happen to Skye. But what else was he gonna say?

* * *

 **Stay tuned!**

 **Questions, comments and suggestions are encouraged! Thanks for reading:)**


	14. Chapter 14: the DRUG

**Forever Cullen- That's classified. ;)**

* * *

They arrived at the trauma center in Bethesda. Coulson and Simmons rushed Skye into the emergency room and the doctors took her into the surgery room. There was nothing else they could do. Skye's fate was in the doctor's hands now. All they could do is wait.

So that's what they did. They waited in that waiting room for hours receiving no updates on how the surgery is going. It was torturous. Skye was had a big role in each of their lives. She was a great friend, a great girlfriend, a great daughter. She deserved the world. But instead she lay on a table barely clinging onto the life she's always wanted.

They each had their own way of coping with the anticipation. Simmons kept herself busy by doing some work on her tablet, Fitz read the magazines on the coffee table, and Ward would go to the bus every once in awhile to blow off some steam.

Coulson and May looked terrible. Eyes red and puffy, Skye's blood all over, and their faces showed exactly what they were thinking. There was no point in any type of distraction. Nothing was going to take their mind off the fact that they might loose their daughter tonight. So they just sat there. Coulson's arm over her shoulders while her head rested on his shoulder. Together they stared into space- for hours.

Finally, a doctor walked into the room. They all shot off their seats and waited for what she had to say.

"How is she?" Coulson managed to say.

"Not good. The shots perforated her stomach and penetrated the large and small intestines. We resected what we could but.. I'm afraid there's been too much damage."

'This isn't good news', Coulson thought.

"So what's next?"

"We can keep her comfortable, but you'll need to make a decision on whether or not you want to keep her on life support."

He looked at May. She was sitting back down bent over with her hands covering her face. He could hear her crying.

"So you're saying there's nothing to be done?", his voice was broken. The team never heard his voice like that before.

"I'm very sorry Agents Coulson and May."

The doctor left the room and they all sunk into their seats. Coulson sat with wide eyes breathing heavily, May lost it with her face in his chest, Fitzsimmons were having trouble processing it, and Ward grew with rage.

"That son of a bitch is gonna pay for this.", said Ward before he stormed out of the room.

Ward barged into the cage on the bus. Quin had a smug smile on his face.

'Look at him-", Ward thought, 'he just shot an unarmed girl and he's smiling. And not just any girl. My girl. The girl who opened up a part of me I didn't know I was capable of having. This guy has to pay. He has to know that he messed with the wrong people'

"Finally, I was starting to think you forgot about me."

Ward slammed Quinn's head against the table. Words came with each punch.

"Do you- have any- idea- what you've done?"

"You- you can't!"

"Why? Because you're defenseless? Like she was?"

He continued to beat the crap out of him. But then the cage door opened.

"Ward! Stand down.", he couldn't hear Coulson. He was too focused on making Quinn pay.

"Ward!"

He looked at Coulson. He had blood and sweat dripping all over his face. Then he looked back at Quinn and shoved him into the ground. He walked out to the common area out of breathe. He sat down.

"He deserves to die Coulson! Not Skye."

"Agreed."

"How are you being so civil? That's your daughter. She's dying. There's nothing to be done.", he was on the verge of tears. Coulson could hear it in his voice.

"There's always something to be done."

"But you heard what the doctor said, Coulson!"

"I know. But there are doctors who brought me back from the dead. If they can do that I bet they can save Skye's life."

Coulson had been searching more and more about what exactly happened in order to bring him back to life ever since he was kidnapped. Everything that SHIELD told him was a lie. He never went to Tahiti, those were false memories implanted into his brain to hide what really happened. And it wasn't just a close call. He was dead for days. That was all he could figure out. He couldn't find what actually brought him back to life. But whatever it was he had to find it now.

All day he went over the files again and again. He told Fitzsimmons everything so they could figure out what they can do with this information to help Skye. Ward was tasked with dealing with the agents on the ground who want to take in Quinn. He left May alone in the cockpit. She couldn't handle anymore stress. Skye lay in a med-pod down stairs. He kept the video feed of that room running on his office monitor, looking at it once and a while to motivate him.

SHIELD sent Agents John Garrett and Antoine Triplett to take Quinn into their custody. Garrett and Coulson were old friends. They both had Fury as an SO (but it was obvious that Fury like Coulson more). Garrett was also Ward's SO. So that's why Garrett was cool with helping them save Skye.

Coulson and Garrett went to interrogate Quinn.

"We want to ask you a few questions about your latest project."

"Oh but there's so many to choose fr-", Garrett grabbed Quinn's tongue.

"Let me be clear. You have no rights. You have no lawyer. The only thing keeping Agent Coulson from throwing you out of this here plane is the very weak heartbeat of the young agent down stairs. And the only incentive I have for not taking your tongue out is that you use it to answer my questions. Is that clear?"

Quinn tried to say ok.

"Did you get that Coulson?"

"No."

Quinn nodded and Garrett let go.

"Tell us about Cybertek and the deathlock program."

"Deathlock?"

"I know- it sounds like some wrestler from the 80's."

"What is it."

"Those are dangerous waters. And the last agent that waited into them wound up with two in the stomach."

"You son of a-" Coulson was about to jump Quinn but Garrett helped him back.

Coulson stormed out of the interrogation and walked straight toward the lab. He found Fitzsimmons packing up the holochamber.

"Tell me you guys found something."

"Actually we did."

"We found where they treated you."

So they went to the the location Fitz and Simmons found. At there were no doctors, just guards. The place was very secretive. When Coulson, Ward, Garrett and Fitz broke in, one of the guards started a timer for a bomb to go off. There wasn't a doctor in sight. They were running out of time. Coulson and Fitz went to search for the GH-325 while Ward and Garrett tried to defuse the bomb. Eventually they did find the drug. But Coulson saw a door marked, "T.A.H.I.T.I.". He needed to know what they did to him so he went inside.

He was not prepared for he was about to see. He saw a dead, blue alien floating around in an incubator with tubes draining its insides. This is what brought him back to life. This is the reason they had to replace his memories. This is what was about to save his daughter's life. If this drug saved her life she would undergo the same mental suffering that he went through. He couldn't do that to her.

He walked through the hall of the underground facility looking like he just saw a ghost. All of a sudden he noticed Garrett dragging him out of there. The place was about to explode. He had to get out of there. They got to the bus just as the ground caved in. He ran down to the med pod, hoping he wasn't too late.

"Don't give it to her!"

He was too late, Simmons was injecting the last of the drug.

"What harm can it do? I was losing her anyway."

The entire team and Garrett watched for what the drug would do to her. Then suddenly she started to gasp for air. Her chest raised as she tried to breathe. This is what Coulson feared.

"Stop it! How can we stop it? Skye!", Ward pleaded.

"What the hell is happening?"

"I don't know.", said Simmons.

May clutched Coulson's jacket.

"Do something! We have to do something!", said Fitz.

Skye was doing this for seconds but it felt like hours.

Finally her chest dropped back on the bed and the gasping stopped.

"Her heartbeat- she's stabilizing"

"Simmons."

"She'll be fine, Sir."

Everyone in the room sighed. She was going to be ok. Garrett saw Coulson and May looking at their daughter.

"Ok. Good work guys. Let's give them some space."

He shook Coulson's hand on his way out. Fitzsimmons followed. Ward took the time to kiss Skye's forehead before he left.

May walked over to stroke Skye's hair.

"Phil- why didn't you want them to give her the drug?"

"I didn't want her to suffer the way that I did.", he looked back at Skye, "But she didn't. So I guess it was all worth it."

"Yeah it was."

He looked at May and saw that she had dark circles under her red eyes.

"Melinda, go get some rest. I'll stay with her."

"Thank you." she reached up to kiss him on the cheek. "Love you."

"Love you too."

She left and he took a seat right next to Skye.

"You're gonna be ok."

 **Thanks for all the nice comments. Anyone hear the rumor about an avenger making an appearance in AOS? That would be awesome tbh.**

 **Questions, comments and suggestions are encouraged. Thanks for reading:)**


	15. Chapter 15: the MED-POD

It was three days after the Skye was injected with the GH-325 and she was still in the coma. There was no way to know when it would break. Coulson sat there everyday, refusing to leave until she woke up. May wasn't as worried as he was. But then again she didn't know exactly what was in that drug. And he didn't plan on telling her.

It was a quiet three days on the BUS. SHIELD didn't assign them any missions (thanks to Fury). No one realized how much energy Skye brought to the bus until she wasn't there. It was tough. All anyone wanted was Skye to wake up and get better.

During the years that Skye was lost and he and May stopped seeing each other, Coulson would get pretty lonely. Somedays he would come home from work to an empty apartment and wish for someone to be there with him. So much that he even tried to make it work with a cellist he met on a mission. Sure that made him happy but it wasn't what he wanted. He wanted to be with Daisy and Melinda. When ever he felt lonely or lost he would look at a picture of the three of them. It reminded him of a time in his life that he was happy.

So that's what he did while he was at Skye's bedside. He look through pictures on his tablet of him and May playing with their baby. Every once and a while he would look at Skye and it would remind him that a lot has changed since those pictures were taken.

He stumbled across a picture of the three of them during Christmas. Skye was wearing a cute little red onesie that said, 'My First Christmas', and had a picture of Rudolph under the letters. Coulson was holding Skye on his lap while they watched May open Skye's presents. Skye was smiling and waving her arms up in the air.

'Such a happy baby.', Coulson thought.

"Hey dad."

His eyes shot off the tablet and saw Skye awake and looking back at him. He put the tablet on her bed and went up to hug her.

"Thank God you're awake. I thought I lost you again.", there were tears in his eyes.

"Nope I'm right here. Wherever we are.", she looked around the room and out the window.

Coulson pulled out his phone and texted May that Skye was awake. Skye was looking around the room looking confused.

"Skye? Are you ok? What's the last thing you remember."

"Um.. I was in the basement with Quinn and Mike."

"And then..."

"Mike put on a robotic leg. And then Quinn-", she paused and her face overcame with confusion.

"What happened next, Skye?"

"Quinn shot me. He shot me in the stomach. Twice. I was bleeding out."

"Yeah. That happened."

"Why am I alive. How is this possible?"

"That's a long story Skye, we'll explain later. How do you feel?"

"I feel fine. A little confused and achy but considering I was shot twice, I feel fine."

"Good."

"How long has it been?"

"Five days."

She let everything sink in. And all of a sudden she was the same old Skye.

"Is that me?", she said looking at the tablet sitting at the edge of her bed.

"Yeah, that's your first Christmas.", he said as he handed the tablet to her.

She smiled and looked at it for a while.

"What was in the box?"

"It was that Scooby-Doo van. It was your favorite."

"How surprising, my favorite toy as a kid was a van.", she said sarcastically.

May rushed down the stairs and into the med pod.

"Oh hey mom."

May didn't say anything. She just walked straight up to Skye and gave her a huge hug.

"Melinda I was just showing Skye her first Christmas."

She wiped away a few tears and let out a few laughs.

"Oh yeah, Santa got you a toy van."

"Look at her, Melinda, she was so cute."

"Um excuse me, I still am. And look at you guys. I look just like you, mom."

"You do. Phil, look at you. So much hair."

He put his hand on his head.

"Yeah I miss that."

Simmons walked in tapping in some data onto her tablet. She looked up and found the three of them laughing.

"Oh hey Skye! I didn't think it was possible but you've broken your record for oversleeping."

"I don't know, I'm feeling pretty tired I think I can go a little longer.", they all laughed and Fitz rushed in.

"What's-Whats going on. Oh hey, Skye, you're awake. Thank god."

Fitz was bend over out of breath.

"Fitz, why did you run in here?"

"Well- I heard people making noise. And I came just in case it there was something wrong."

"Why would something be wrong just because there was noise?", Skye asked.

"It's been pretty quiet on the bus these past few days with out you.", Coulson said.

"Yeah, turns out nothing's the same without the entire team here."

"Speaking of the entire team, where's Grant?"

The team look around at each other to see who would answer the question. Coulson gave in.

"Ward's at the hub right now with Garrett, he'll be back tonight."

"Ok, just one thing: who's Garrett?"

The rest of the day was pretty boring; for Skye anyway. Everyone finally convinced Coulson to go take a shower and sleep in a normal bed, May said she had to do some work in her bunk but everyone knew she was going in that shower with Coulson, and Fitz and Simmons stayed with Skye to run some tests on her blood and to make sure she doesn't get out of her bed.

But suddenly, she wasn't so bored.

"Simmons, I'm tired of peeing in a bowl can't I just get up for that?"

"No, you're still not completely healed yet."

"Uggh."

"You've always been a stubborn one.", said a voice from behind Simmons.

"Grant-"

He walked over to her and went straight in for a long, deep kiss- which made Fitz and Simmons very uncomfortable. So they left to give them some privacy.

"I must look terrible, Simmons won't even bring me a mirror."

"I've seen worse."

"Wow thanks."

"No I mean, you look better then when you were dying."

"Swinging and a-missing, Grant."

"It's great to see you better. You have no idea how scared I was."

"I heard you beat up Quinn."

"Yeah. I was out of control. I never should've done that."

"No you were right to do that. I never should've gone down there, alone."

"Hey. There's no point in doing that now. You were brave. Thanks to you every S.H.I.E.L.D agent in the country knows Mike Peterson's alive."

"You tell them about his magic leg?"

"I didn't call it that, but yes. Agent Garrett's running point on Mike. He thinks he's apart of some project called Deathlock."

"He looked like death. You should've... He wouldn't even look at me. They did something too him. He needs help."

"He's past help. He was there with you Skye- he could've protected you. He let this happen to you. And I'll never forgive that."

She could tell he was getting worked up so she held his hand.

"Well- I need to better protect myself. So, when Simmons gives the all-clear we can start training?"

"We'll ease you back into it."

"No. I wanna train harder. Next time I don't wanna depend on some miracle drug to save me."

"Ok. You got it.", he leaned in for a hug. "Skye? I love you. I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner. When I saw you bleeding out I thought you were gonna die thinking I didn't-"

"Grant- I love you too."

* * *

 **To be Hydra... or not to be Hydra. That is the question.**

 **Questions, comments and suggestions are encouraged. Thanks for reading:)**


	16. Chapter 16: the ASGARDIAN

"So what, Ward's like a pod-person?", Skye said to Coulson after he told her what went down while they were out in the field.

"No, according to Lady Sif, the men Lorelei controls don't forget who they are or what they know she just becomes the embodiment of all their desires."

"Well that makes me feel better."

Simmons felt the need to help her.

"Skye he's being mind controlled you can't blame him for-"

"I don't,", Skye interrupted, "Let's just fix it. Once we find them we can break her mojo or whatever and get Grant back right?"

"Yeah, once we get the collar's on the back on Lorelei's neck, the enchantment ends, but that's the problem. The collar caught a shotgun blast back in the desert. Fitz, you think you can fix it?"

"Well, the metal, the weight- it's similar to the berserker staff."

"But it presents its own set of countless unknown variables."

"You've got a couple hours."

"Ok I'm on it."

"What can I do.", Skye said as he started to walk out of the door. "Hey, dad. What about me? Don't you dare say nothing or tell me to sit down here and count ceiling tiles while my boyfriend is missing."

"Ward's got drop boxes and storage units all over the world. They're filled with currency, weapons, I.D.s. He's gonna use aliases, cash- anything to keep Lorelei off the radar. You're the best radar we have. Find them."

Then there she was- all alone in her med-pod searching for the man she loved and the alien woman he was momentarily in love with. Not weird at all. She searched everywhere using every algorithm she knew to find him. But she couldn't. He was a spy she knew it wouldn't be easy but she was getting frustrated. All she could do now was to wait for Ward to make a mistake and walk in front of a security camera. It took a few hours but she finally found him. She found him in Vegas checking into a hotel with her. Skye tried her best to not think about what they were gonna do in that room.

The team got to the hotel room but they were too late. Ward and Lorelei were long gone. Or at least that's what they thought. Once they got off the ground they soon learned that 'Bonnie and Clyde' had snuck onto the bus to take out Sif and destroy the collar- destroying anything or anyone in their way.

It was just Skye and Simmons in the med-pod when the bus took off unexpectedly. Simmons tried to get out but the door was jammed.

"What the hell is happening? Why are we taking off and why is this door jammed."

"She's here.", Skye said.

"What?"

"Grant and Lorelei are here. They're here for Sif. She's gonna brainwash every guy on this plane. We can't trust them."

"Oh god, Fitz."

"Great, now this bitch has my boyfriend, my dad and my best friend's best friend.", she looked back down at her tablet and saw that Coulson was making his way down. "Oh god, Simmons."

She grabbed the fire extinguisher and hid in the corner.

"Woah you're gonna knock out my dad with a fire extinguisher?"

"Do you have a better idea?"

"True. Hide he's coming."

Coulson removed the bar that was jamming the door and came walked in. Simmons swung the extinguisher aiming it at Coulson's head. But Coulson, being the trained spy he was, ducked and grabbed it away from her.

"Oh god."

"What the hell are you doing?"

"Sir, are you- you?"

"Of course I am! Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well you're a guy and this chick controls guys."

"I haven't seen her yet. And I don't plan on it. Fitz has Sif locked in the cage."

"Dad, um. Fitz opened the roof. She's gone."

"Are you kidding? She's asgardian. Sifts still out there let her in."

"Wait where's May?"

"She's dealing with Ward right now. Simmons come with me."

Meanwhile, upstairs:

"Get out of her way, May.", Ward warned.

"She's controlling you, Ward."

"Maybe. But I don't care. I'd do anything for her."

"Really? What about Skye? You once said that about her."

"Whatever I had with Skye doesn't compare to how Lorelei makes me feel."

"You don't mean that. Snap out of it."

"Grant, I'm tired of this. Kill her."

Ward did his best to attack May, but she was not going down easy. Lorelei made her way down to the cage to take Sif's sword. But as she was about to pick it up, Sif dropped through the roof and put the collar on Lorelei's neck, ending any enchantment she had over a man.

Ward had a gun to May's head as the enchantment ended. He pulled the trigger put May took out the mag before.

May punched him in the face.

"Hey hey! May it's me. Ok I'm normal."

Sif came upstairs with Lorelei in cuffs and the collar.

"He speaks the truth Melinda May."

She punched him one more time.

Later that night in the cockpit:

"You beat up Ward?"

"Yup."

"Dammit I wanted to be the one."

"Phil, I beat him up because he was trying to kill me. You want to beat him up because dating your daughter."

"True. You actually had a good reason. But I wish I was there to see it. You know how much I like watching you fight."

Ward knocked on the cockpit door.

"May I speak to you two."

"What is it Ward."

"I really want to apologize for what I did today."

"You were being controlled. No one blames you."

"Thank you, sir. And Agent May? About what I said about Skye not comparing to Lorelei- I'd appreciate it if you not tell her."

"I won't say anything, Ward. Unless I have to."

"What does that me-"

Coulson looked back at him.

"It means you can leave now."

Ward left feeling like he just pissed off his hopefully future in-laws (which he did)

* * *

 **Questions, comments and suggestions are encouraged. Thanks for reading:)**


	17. Chapter 17: the CLAIRVOYANT(ish)

Coulson finally narrowed the search for the clairvoyant down to three people. He invited other level 8 agents onto the BUS to assist them on a mission.

"Coulson, we can't make her an agent just because she's your daughter.", Agent Hand said.

"That's not the reason I want to do this. She's done so much to distribute to this team. She gives her all during every mission. She has a skill set that really brings something different to S.H.I.E.L.D.- something we need. She almost gave her life for god's sake."

"Ok, bring her up."

* * *

"Baby- top brass wants to see you upstairs.", Ward said to Skye as he walked into the lab.

"I didn't do it."

"Do what?", Ward said suspiciously.

"Nothing. Let's go upstairs."

* * *

"You wanted to see me, Dad- Agent Coulson.", Skye had to be extra formal in front of the other agents.

He told her about his plan to find the Clairvoyant.

"Yeah, pairing off makes total sense. Just one thought though, what if we make it a double blind?"

"How so?", Hand said skeptically.

"Well I'll give one person from each team the potential Clairvoyant's coordinates, and I'll give the other one the identity. That way no one person knows the full specs of the op until you get there."

"I like how you think.", Garrett said, "I like how she thinks."

"One question- how am I supposed to access all the classified files without someone in the room? I don't have clearance."

"Well now you do.", he reached into his pocket and took out a S.H.I.E.L.D badge, "Welcome to S.H.I.E.L.D, Skye."

She stood there in shock. Everyone was looking at her. May even brought Fitzsimmons out of the lab.

"I- I don't know what to say. Thank you."

"Don't thank me. You've passed every required S.H.I.E.L.D exam with flying colors."

"For a level 1 agent.", Hand had to say.

"You've assisted us on multiple field missions, you put your life on the line. You earned this."

"Hell, you took two in the gut. More than Sitwell here's ever done."

"Ok everyone, back to work."

The team congratulated her as they went back to their work stations. And then it was just her and Ward. The one person she felt she really needed to thank.

"You know, I couldn't have done it with out a great and very important S.O."

"Yeah you could've."

"Thanks but- I really should thank you for being a _great_ boyfriend. I'm so glad you kidnapped me from the back of my van."

"Me too.", he said while laughing, "I'm no Clairvoyant, but I do believe some things are meant to be."

The room was empty, so he leant down and kissed her.

"I love you."

"I love you too, Agent Skye."

"Ok that sounds weird. I'm gonna have to fix that."

"What do you mean?"

"My parents told me the name I had before- everything. Maybe I should change-"

"Skye we need you in the cage.", said Coulson over the intercom.

"I'll leave you to it, Agent name to be determined."

There were three pairs sent to find three potential Clairvoyants: Coulson and Garrett, Ward and Trip, and May and Blake. Some how, the Clairvoyant knew where everyone would be and he sent people to kill each of them. But Blake as the only agent who got hurt; and that was only because Deathlock was there.

Luckily, Blake shot Mike with a tracking bullet so they went to his location. It was an abandoned building in Pensacola, Florida. They brought squads of men and sealed off the building. Skye and Fitz ran backup from the tactical van. Ward was extra careful with Skye's safety when dealing with the Clairvoyant so he had some men protect her.

They searched through the entire building for Deathlock. Coulson followed him down to the basement level, where he met Garrett. There they found the Clairvoyant, Thomas Nash. He was sitting in a wheel chair, hooked up to a bunch of medical equipment, staring at surveillance feed. He needed computer to talk for him. Ward, may and the rest of the men came into the room once they confirmed it was him.

 _"I will join Raina in your prison, Agent Coulson, but I will see you where ever you go, just as I saw you holding your daughter, Skye in your arms, bleeding... dying... knowing it was all your fault.",_ the computer said.

This guy killed a lot of people. He was the one who ordered his daughter to be shot. He wanted to make him suffer.

"You're going away. We're gonna stick you in a little box where no one will ever hear you again."

 _"I see you're angry. Head clouded with lies. You've been betrayed and now you fear what's about to happen_."

"Nothing's about to happen. Just more empty threats from you."

" _No. It is the inevitable. A force beyond your comprehension is coming for you- You and Skye. She has something we want and she will die giving it to us. I have seen it."_

The Clairvoyant kept mentioning Skye and how he was going to kill her. Coulson, May and Ward started to get really worked up.

"Go to hell.", Coulson said as he walked closer to him.

 _"No matter where I go or what you do to me, I will always-"_

Ward shot The Clairvoyant. It wasn't tactical, it wasn't strategic, it was out of rage.

He was hand cuffed and locked into the cage on the bus. Coulson requested that he stay with the team. His first visitor was Skye.

"Why'd you do it, Grant."

"I lost it. I got angry. He pushed all the right buttons."

"Dad said the mission was to capture, not to kill."

"Think about what the clairvoyant said, what he's done. Think about the centipede program, how he experimented on innocent people like Mike Peterson, how he kidnapped and tortured Coulson, how he ordered Quinn to shoot you. And he wasn't gonna stop, Skye. Not until you... I wasn't gonna let that happen."

"So, what happens now?"

"I face a S.H.I.E.L.D. review board. What ever the punishment I'll take it. I deserve it. But I don't regret what I've done. You don't?"

"No. Not if it means the girl I love is safe."

Skye was unsure how to feel about what he did. So she left and went to Coulson's office.

"Dad, mind if I talk some stuff through with you? Are you busy?"

"I'm worried."

"About Ward?"

"Yeah."

"I know I can't believe he just killed someone like that."

"I'm worried he killed the wrong man. How do we know it was him? He never spoke. The computer spoke for him. How de we know he was the one controlling it?"

"Are you saying Nash could have been pretending to be the clairvoyant?"

"I'm saying Nash could have been a prop."

"And now he's dead."

"After the attacks led us right to him. The investigation all wrapped up in a neat little bow. I feel like he could still be watching us right now, in our heads."

"Or in our files. When you told me to check into the Psych evals, you said something. You said 'read his mind'. And it got me thinking and Ward said that the Clairvoyant knew how to push all the right buttons."

"Raina did that to me too."

"Did she mention your father's death? Your Psych evaluation called it a defining moment. These aren't just personality tests. They're surveillance on every agent- pictures, stats, where you've been stationed, who you'd visit, where you'd like to eat."

"Half-moon pub."

"Excuse me?"

"Your mom and I- we go there every time we catch a break when the team is at the hub. He's been monitoring us. Think about it. The clairvoyant only knew we'd be at Quinn's villa-"

"After I dropped a tracker. And the only thing he's had trouble seeing is what happened to you after you died."

"Because director fury wouldn't release that file to anyone."

"No."

"The Clairvoyant doesn't have abilities. He has security clearance. He's an Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D."

Coulson left the room and headed straight into wards room.

"Sir, first off I wanna say-"

"Save it. I don't want your apologies. I don't want your excuses"

"I'm not making excuses."

"The only thing I wanna know is whether you made the call yourself or did someone order you to do it."

"What?"

"Don't play dumb, Agent Ward. Just answer the question- Did someone order you to kill the Clairvoyant?"

"No. I made the call myself."

"Why'd you shoot him."

"Because! He's done so many horrible things. But worst of all he threatened Skye. I wasn't gonna let him touch her."

"But your trained for this sort of thing. You're supposed to be the best, that's why I picked you for this team. Your evaluation said that you had trouble showing emotions. That you had personality issues. Now look at you. Haven't you changed?"

"I wasn't put on your plan so you could make me a better person, Coulson. You put me here to make the hard call, and I made it."

"That's not what I asked you, Agent Ward."

"I answered your question. I wasn't working with anybody. I take full responsibility for my own actions."

"Then why-"

He was interrupted when the plane made a complete turn and knocked him over.

"What the hell is this Ward!"

"This isn't me. I swear."

He got out his phone and dialed for May who was in the cockpit. She didn't answer. He rushed into the cockpit and found May on the floor unconscious.

"Oh god, Melinda.", he sat her up against the wall.

"Phil- I don't know what's happening. The plane just turned around."

"Can you turn it back?"

She got up and attempted to regain control of the plane, but it was no use.

"I can't steer it. Someone's controlling our plane from the ground."

"You mean SHIELD is doing this?"

"Yeah."

"Oh god we're in trouble.", he called Skye's phone, "Skye? We were right. See what you and Fitz can do to interrupt the signal from the hub."

"Phil what's happening. You were right about what?"

"The Clairvoyant is a SHIELD agent. And she's controlling this plane."

"She?"

"I think Victoria Hand is the Clairvoyant."

* * *

 **FYI: in this version of the story Fury didn't ask May to watch Coulson. Therefore, she doesn't know about the alien blood that saved him and Skye. I felt that if I added this to the story there would be too much going on. I wouldn't want to distract from what I have planned for this story in the next few chapters (sh*ts goin DOWN). And always:**

 **Questions, comments and suggestions are encouraged. Thanks for reading:)**


	18. Chapter 18: the LIGHT

"Skye, what's happening?", Fitz asked as he walked into the briefing area carrying a bunch of wires.

"Long story short- My dad and I have enough evidence to believe that Thomas Nash wasn't the actual Clairvoyant. We believe that the real Clairvoyant is a high level S.H.I.E.L.D agent."

"Ok... Then what are we trying to do."

"Someone at the hub controlling our plane. We have to hack the system and regain access to the control panel."

"The hub? Simmons. She's at the hub."

After that Coulson rushed through the room carrying May in his arms.

"Woah woah woah. What happened?"

"She hit her head when the plane shifted. It's pretty bad."

"Do you need help?"

"No I got it. We have about two hours until we get to the hub. Focus on that. Garrett's on his way."

Coulson laid May down on the bed in the med-pod. She was starting to wake up. And being as stubborn as she was, she didn't want to stay there.

"Stay here. We'll get you some help when we figure this out."

"No... Phil I'll be fine I can help."

"Melinda you're staying here. I can't lose you. Ok? Just lay down, relax."

"Ok. I love you."

"I love you."

Skye figured that trying to regain control of the plane was useless. But there was something coming in on all the S.H.I.E.L.D computers.

"It's a simple message repeated. Semantic coding. I needed to find the mnemonic key. It should only take me a minute more to decipher.", Skye said as Coulson walked in, "How's mom."

"She'll be fine."

Garrett climbed down from the Quinjet looking very confused.

"Can I ask the obvious question? What the hell?!"

"We don't know. We don't even know where our plane is headed."

"Oh I saw your trajectory. You're being tractor beamed straight to the Hub. Those drones were locked out of there for sure."

"Victoria Hand."

"What about her, Coulson?"

"The Clairvoyant? You think Victoria Hand is the Clairvoyant?"

"I thought Ward capped that guy."

"I don't believe the man Ward killed was the Clairvoyant. I think he was an unwitting decoy. Meant to end our investigation."

"That's a lot of trouble to go through for a red herring don't you think?"

"Because the Clairvoyant is a S.H.I.E.L.D agent. Using high-level clearance to stay ahead of us, make it seem like she's got psychic abilities.

"'She'? You think Victoria Hand is the Clairvoyant? I don't mean to pee in the punch bowl, but that doesn't make a lot of sense. I was stationed with Vic in Lisbon. She's a hard ass and a buzz kill at parties, I grant you, but do you really think she's capable of that?"

"Excuse me didn't she just try to blow you out of the sky?"

"Don't get me wrong- she's definitely gone nuts, but her actions prove she's not the Clairvoyant, right? I mean if she's been hiding in plane sight all this time... Why reveal herself now?"

Almost immediately after he said that sentence the code on the monitor started to come together.

Out of the shadows, into the light.

The letters paused and deleted. Then a new code started to come together.

Hydra.

They were dealing with Hydra. Victoria Hand was the Clairvoyant and she was Hydra. She was also controlling their plane. Once they land at the hub, every agent working for her was going to try to kill them.

"Ok stop.", Fitz was getting overwhelmed with all this information, "What does that mean? In S.H.I.E.L.D?"

"Targeting level 8 agents. Wonder how deep this goes."

"The signal is every where. Deep."

"Do you know what this means?"

"We're screwed."

"We can't change course. And we have no idea what's waiting for us at the hub."

"The hub.", Fitz said.

"I say we blow a hole in this puppy and parachute out. Live to fight another day."

"We can't."

"It's a cherry ride I'll give you that, but let's not just hand over the keys."

"Simmons is at the hub. We have to save her."

"Oh crap, yeah. Trips there too. I don't mind saying I don't like the odds on this one. "We should get Ward out of the cage. We can use every weapon we can get."

"I can fight.", May said as she walked into the room.

"Melinda-"

"Phil, don't protect me. I can do this."

"Ok let's go."

A little while later they landed at the hub. Before they even touched the ground, agents started shooting at the plane. Fitz wired the cargo hold to stay shut but that was only going to hold for a a couple hours.

Skye was busy trying to scrub the plane's memory system. They figured that since Hydra didn't blow up the plane that they wanted to take over it. The team did their best to fight off anyone coming in but eventually they did. But of course they prepared for this.

Fitz designed a sort of laser that was able to cut through the strongest material. They cut a hole in the plane and made it into the vents of the hub. It was Coulson, May, Skye, Ward, Fitz and Garrett against Hand and all of her agents.

"All right. Here's where we split. Skye and Ward?"

"Heading to the nerve center."

"Disable their systems, and most importantly their control of our plane."

"Yes sir."

The two of them started to walk away when Coulson grabbed Wards arm.

"Protect her Ward."

"With my life, sir."

"What about us, Phil?"

"I have a plan.", he said handing a pair of handcuffs to May. "Garret's gonna pretend that he arrested us. He'll take us to a control room where we'll take over.

So that's what they did. And for the first time that day, something they did actually worked.

Skye and Ward managed to get into the janitors closet next to the nerve center. The only problem was the hallway between the two rooms were crawling with agents.

"Damn."

"The processing center is at the end of that hall."

"Give me your ICER."

"What are you gonna do?"

"Pave the way for you."

"Theres like a hundred guys out there."

"Twelve. Level five foot soldiers basic armor package, and no other way through. The others are depending on us."

"But it's suicide."

"Not if I don't die."

"Grant. Stop playing I'm serious. Don't go out there you'll die."

"Maybe I deserve to."

"Woah. Stop. Grant."

"I killed and innocent man, Skye."

"You didn't know. You thought you were doing the right thing. You thought he was going to-"

"To hurt you. Coulson's always saying that I have to protect you. And when I try to I can't even do that."

"Grant-"

"Just let me do this. For you."

She handed him her ICER.

"Skye, if we make it out of this maybe we can go see a baseball game or something. Be... normal for a change."

"When we make it out of this- yes. Let's have an normal date."

He leant down and gave her the best kiss he could in case it was their last.

"Lock the door behind me."

After a few minutes of hearing loud punching and grunting Skye finally heard footsteps walking towards her door. She didn't know if it was Ward or someone else. All she could do was wait for them to come in. Luckily it was Ward, she let out a side of relief.

"We are going to have a hard time being trying to be normal, aren't we?"

"Definitely. You ready to hack the system?"

She opened her backpack and reviled a bunch of explosives.

"Who said anything about hacking?"

Coulson, May, Fitz and Garrett took control of a surveillance room where they could see where everyone is in the base. Garrett spotted Hand and her men.

"There. Agent Hand. Outside the East wing situation room."

"Is Simmons there? We don't move until we find Simmons."

"I'll say it again. Best bet to save her use the ventilation system to get above the sit room. Drop down using Fitz's sweet, little mouse hole, and put two bullets through Victoria Hand's heart."

"Without questioning?"

"Questioning what? Whether she wants to kill us fast or slow?"

"Last time we did that we shot the wrong man."

"Because he wanted us to! Phil, this is a battle for S.H.I.E.L.D's soul, and we're on the front lines. History will remember us this day."

"Thats right. Its for S.H.I.E.L.D's soul and murder without consideration is a sure-"

"'Consideration?' Consider this: She had one of my men killed with a bomb rigged to his gas pedal. The other two were floating in the hotel pool and they weren't doing the backstroke."

"But we can just as easily ice her."

"You don't put someone like that on ice. She had Skye shot in the stomach- in the stomach! Because she was curious. Mike peterson burned alive and turned into some kind of freak. She tortured, you using the same machine she used to brainwash that bitch in the flower dress. And right now she's probably doing the same to agent Simmons. Oh, I've considered it plenty, my friend."

"Simmons will be fine.", Fitz corrected.

"Just being realistic, kid."

May could tell Coulson stopped listening to Garrett a long time ago. He had a look on his face that she could tell he just discovered something horrible.

"I never mentioned that.", Coulson said.

"I'm telling you, killing her quick would be a mercy."

"I never said Raina had been inside the machine. I never told that to anybody."

"I must've read it in a report then."

"You weren't with us."

"The point is, how many more have to suffer before Vic gets hers?"

"You showed up right after."

"What are you driving at?"

"After Skye was shot. Quinn said it was so I could lead the Clairvoyant to the cure. That's exactly what I did. I walked you right in there with me."

May and Fitz caught on to what he was saying.

"Phil, look, it's been a rough day. I get it. Just you need to take a second and-", there was no going back. He was made ,"Damn it."

After that Hand and her men came in. They had been listening and they took in Garrett and all the other Hydra agents and Coulson's team was all back together.

Skye and Ward walked up to the team in the hallway where all the hydra agents were being escorted out.

Then, Ward sees Garrett turn the corner with handcuffs and two guards at his sides.

"What the hell!? I trusted you!", Trip yelled.

Ward just looked like he was in complete shock.

"Coulson, what's happening?"

Coulson brought Ward to the side for a private conversation.

"Ward, Garrett was the Clairvoyant."

"No."

"I know this is hard. He was my friend too."

Ward just continued to try to process it.''

"And I'll find agent Garrett the smallest, darkest cell in the ice box.", Hand said to Coulson.

"I'd like to turn the key on that cell myself… If you don't mind, sir. He was my S.O I feel I… I should have known. It was my duty to-"

"No one knew. I didn't know. That's how I beat us. By being a friend."

"I spent years with that bastard. Looked up to him. I want to see him suffer."

"Don't mind the company, and I can always use a man of your skills."

Hand, Ward and some other agents took Garrett onto a jet to take him to the fridge. It was just them on the jet, with no one on the ground looking out for them.

"Course is locked, ma'am.", an agent said as he walked out of the cockpit.

"Good.", she stood up in front of Garrett, "He's not telling stories now, is he? You know what I'm thinking agent Garrett? I'm thinking the ice box at the fridge is a little too comfortable for you. Maybe we should put you a little deeper underground. What do you think agent Ward? You shot the wrong clairvoyant before. Care to shoot the right one?"

Ward looked at Garrett. He looked at him long and hard to make his decision. He finally stood up and took out his gun. He cocked his gun and pointed it at Garrett. Hand had a smile on her face. But to her surprise, Ward shot the two agents next to Garrett.

"What are you-"

Then, Ward shot hand in the gut. She fell to the floor and he shot her four more times in the face.

"Nice job, son."

Garrett walked into the cockpit to change the course. Ward sat down in his chair and covered his face with his hands.

All he could think about was Skye. He couldn't help but think of what this means for their relationship. He loved her, he really did- but could she see past him being HYDRA?

* * *

 **Grant Ward is HYDRA! I thought about both scenarios (Hydra Ward and not hydra Ward) and I felt this was the way to go. But if anyone would like me to make a fic where he isn't hydra just let me know.**

 **Questions, comments and suggestions are encouraged. Thanks for reading:)**


	19. Chapter 19: the AFTERMATH

"I made a list of the S.H.I.E.L.D. bases we believe are secure.", Skye said as she walked up to Coulson who was running the hub.

"How many so far? Seven?"

"Three."

He couldn't believe it. Three? He was in denial that the organization he gave his life to had fallen.

"Plus the hub."

"Including the hub."

She could see his hopes going down after she corrected him.

"Dad, relax. It's a preliminary list I'm sure more will turn up."

"You're right. I just can't shake this feeling- something's not right."

They watched the news reports. It was painful to watch what went down in Washington D.C. with Captain America. They thought they were invincible.

"You were right all along. Having all this out in the world makes it too dangerous, and now… there's no one left to protect it."

"There's us. We were lucky enough to make it through. The Triskelion, the Hub… those battles are just the beginning of this war. Hydra's out there now, but at least our team is still in tact. We can fight him and we will."

That was one thing that he thought about a lot. All around the organization, friends were being ripped being ripped apart from each other- but somehow, his team came out whole. He was grateful- at first. His past experiences have taught him not to get his hopes up right away.

And he could tell that Skye was worried too. He had to think about her. She finally felt like she was apart of something, she liked it at S.H.I.E.L.D. and she's never really liked it anywhere. But now that was gone. She talked to him before about how every time she'd start to get comfortable somewhere something would go wrong. He assured her that wouldn't happen here, but there they were, picking up the pieces.

Trip and Fitzsimmons were trying to repair the damages done to the Bus, May was trying to fix the systematic damage, and Skye was trying to find more standing S.H.I.E.L.D. bases. Coulson was all over the place. Him being the highest ranking agent on the base put him in a position of authority. Every agent acted on his order. Every few seconds there was someone coming up to him needing approval on one thing or another. When he got a second he went to check on how Skye was doing with her work.

"Good news. The Cube has been retaken. All hydra agents have been flushed out and are on the run."

"So that makes four."

"See, told you more would turn up."

More agents came up to him. He dealt with them all in a few seconds. Skye was impressed.

"Wow. Look at you- all in charge."

"Yeah I kinda like it."

May walked up behind them. She had a bruise on her forehead.

"Hey how are you feeling.", Coulson asked.

"I'm fine. The hull's almost completely repaired. Flight Systems are back online."

"And the cargo ramp?"

"Fitz assures me that it will be operational."

Then, suddenly on the big monitor flashed an incoming video call alert.

"This is Colonel Glenn Talbot, U.S. Air Force. I need to speak to whoever's in charge over there."

Coulson looked back at May and Skye.

"Thats you, dad.", Skye whispered.

"Colonel Talbot, I'm Agent Phil Coulson. I'm happy we could-"

"Mr. Coulson, it's a real mess your boys have gotten us into."

"Hydra caught us by surprise."

"Well, that's an understatement. It's troubling how deeply embedded Hydra was within your ranks."

"Especially troubling for us, sir. But I assure you we're going on the offensive. The Hub is secure. All remaining agents stand ready to assist you in whatever-"

"I think we've had about all the help we can handle from S.H.I.E.L.D I'm sending in a peacekeeping force. They're gonna take control."

"Understood, what should I tell my men to expect?"

"We just want to ask a few questions, get the lay of the land. Everything checks out, you and your boys can be on your merry."

"Sounds good."

He hangs up and turns to May and Skye.

"This doesn't sound good."

"He's lying, definitely, for sure."

The three of them made their way out to the Bus.

"If Talbot's leading the op, there's nothing peacekeeping about it."

"Base defenses operational, we could hold out.", May suggested.

"The last thing S.H.I.E.L.D. needs is to start a war with the U.S. government."

"Then what happens when Talbot gets here?", Skye asked.

"Best case scenario, we all get subpoenas, spend the next six months tied up in court hearings."

"And the worst case scenario?"

"Means they skip the subpoenas, move straight to bunker busters."

"Bombs. Big bombs."

"All the while, Hydra is still out there."

"Skye, get on the comms, we're enacting enacting Odyssey protocol."

"Odyssey protocol? What does that mean?

"It means Fitz needs to finish his repairs, we're getting the hell out of here."

He stopped walking and let the two of them continue walking until they realized he had stopped. May turned around first.

"Phil, what are you doing?"

He looked at them and smiled.

"We are one bad ass family aren't we."

May and Skye scoffed.

"You're just now realizing this, Dad?"

They continued to walk into the bus. Skye went straight to the briefing table to enact Odyssey protocol.

"A lot of agents are staying behind to surrender."

"I wish they'd reconsider. We need all the help we can get to fight hydra. How's the bus?"

"Fitz managed to Jerry-rig the ramp, but the Hub's fuel reserves were tapped out. We're running low."

"Talbot's landing in less than an hour. Can you get us in the air?"

"I'll have us wheels up in 10"

"Thanks. And after that go rest, you need it."

Trip stood up after May left him.

"So you guys are all set to go?"

"I appreciate your help."

"Enough to give me a bunk? Seeing as you guys are down a specialist, I was hoping I could hitch a ride."

"Not gonna happen. But feel free to commandeer one of Hand's vehicles."

He turns away but Trip isn't done.

"Is there a problem?"

"No problem. I'm just not letting you on my plane."

"Garrett had me fooled, same as everyone else."

"Everyone else wasn't at his side day in, day out."

"Friends of mine are dead because of him, good friends."

Simmons had been listening and finally felt the need to enter the conversation.

"I think he should come with us, sir."

"Duly noted, Agent Simmons. But this isn't a democracy."

"Isn't it? Under the circumstances, I think we should all have a say in this, and I witnessed Agent Triplett willing to die in defense of S.H.I.E.L.D. Respectfully, sir, I think he should come along with us."

"Okay. But Agent Triplett is your responsibility."

He walks through the lab to see Fitz looking at Trip and Simmons. Fitz doesn't even notice Coulson standing there. Coulson finds it amusing.

"Fitz!"

He drops the box in his hands and jumps.

"Oh um, sir, hi."

Coulson couldn't help but laugh. He looked over at Trip helping Simmons.

"You got nothing to worry about Fitz."

"What do you-"

"You like her. It's obvious. Everyone on the team knows it. Well except for Simmons."

"Okay…"

"Anyway, we need to disappear."

"Well only S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarriers have cloaking technology."

"Then how do we avoid detection?"

"We don't. Best we can do is stay out of other aircraft's radar and remain in flight for as long as possible. The minute we land, the harder it is to hide."

"Great."

He walks over to Simmons in the cargo hold.

"How are we doing on supplies?"

"We're all stocked up on medical, but I'm afraid our food rations will only last a couple of days at best."

"Perfect."

He turns around to check on Trip.

"Bad news."

"No kidding."

"Fuel line's busted. We're leaking."

"Can we fix it?"

"Sure as soon as we touch down."

"Awesome."

He walks up to Skye at the briefing table.

"Skye, please tell me something good."

"We have internet."

"Yay.", he said sarcastically, "And, boy, have I lowered my expectations."

"But all H.Q. support systems are gone."

"Well then, the internet it is. Find anything you can on our team, all personal records, photos, anything that proves we exist- then erase it."

"Uh, that's kinda the nuclear option."

"It's our only option. Every government agency in the world will be on our ass. We need to vanish."

"Once that's done, it can't be undone. We'll be ghosts. Not agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., just agents of… nothing."

He turns around without saying anything.

"What about Ward? Have you heard from him? He and Agent Hand should have dropped Garrett off at the Fridge by now."

He turns and walks back to her.

"Not yet.", he pulls out a cell phone from his pocket and hands it to her, "Here, give him a call. Hearing how Garrett settled into his tiny, windowless permanent home might actually cheer me up. When you're finished, collect everyone's badges. It's no longer something we want to flash around."

He left and walked up to the cockpit to talk to May.

"Any sign of Talbot's force's?"

"Not yet, but we've only got 8 hours of flight before we have to land."

"No more than four, fuel line's leaking."

He jumped into the seat next to her. He put his put back and closed his eyes.

"What the hell is happening."

"You're handling this well."

"Three days ago, we were in the air- waiting for the next mission alert from S.H.I.E.L.D.", his words started to mix with some laughter, "A perfectly stable S.H.I.E.L.D. it was a perfectly stable. Everything's perfect. And now look at us. On the run from the U.S. government because my friend turned out to be the Hydra nut who we've been trying to track down for the last six months."

May was concerned about him but she smiled because he was laughing.

"You're handling this… well.", she said sarcastically.

He stopped smiling, sighed and looked out the window into the vast open sky in front of them.

"I was. But I just got a call. Fury's dead."

May looked at him speechless. That man was their best friend. The one who rooted for them to get back together after a silly college fight. The one who encouraged them to take the leap into parenthood and keep their newborn daughter. He even got them back into the field after they lost their daughter. And now he was gone.

May was having a hard time finding something to say. Coulson knew what she was thinking. She didn't have to say anything.

"We'll be fine. Right, Melinda?"

Skye was in the middle of erasing their identities when she remembered to call Ward. She dialed his number and continued to tap away on the holotable.

" _Sir? Is everything ok?"_

Skye smiled at the sound of his voice.

"Hey, it's me. I just wanted to let you know that Grant Ward no longer exists."

There was a moment of confused silence.

"You wanna explain that, Skye?"

"Dad had us evacuate before he could lock us all up. Now I'm scrubbing our I.D.s while Coulson figures out our next move."

"Makes sense. Agent Hand picked up some Navy jets in the vicinity. She has us taking the long way to the Fridge just to be safe."

"Wow. You took that surprisingly well. Did you hear the part about you not existing?"

"Well, it's not the first time my identity's been compromised. Do you have any idea where your dad has us headed?"

"No idea. I'll keep you posted."

"Good. I'll catch up with you when I can."

"And when I see you next, who you gonna be? You've got a clean slate. You can be anyone you want."

"I don't know. Maybe… Tom Brady. I've always wanted to play quarterback."

"And date supermodels, you are so predictable."

"No, I mean the guy seems to have things pretty worked out.", they both laughed, "And besides, I'm already dating a supermodel."

"Aw you're sweet. You're no Tom Brady, but I think I'll keep you."

"Wow thanks.", he said sarcastically.

They stopped joking when they realized how much they missed each other.

"Be careful.", Skye said.

"I will. I love you."

"Love you too."

"K stay safe."

* * *

 **More incite into what Ward is doing during the next chapter.**

 **Sorry to disappoint anyone who was hoping I was gonna not make Ward Hydra. The point of this story was to see how May and Coulson being Skye's parents would change the story. That was the only major part of the story I wanted to change.**

 **But if any of you would be interested in a fic with a non-Hydra Ward- let me know.**

 **I'm really happy with how this story is moving and I hope you do too.**

 **Questions, comments and suggestions are encouraged! Thanks for reading:)**


	20. Chapter 20: the COORDINATES

Ward hung up the phone and stared at it, thinking about how much it sucked that he was lying to her.

"Tom Brady? You hate the Patriots.", Garrett said.

Ward snapped out of his thoughts.

"The Grant Ward she knows doesn't."

"Yeah that straight version of you is something else. I don't even think Romanoff could pull that one."

"Well it wasn't without it's complications."

"Oh come on.", he scoffed, "You're not still upset about that."

"Shooting Skye was not part of the plan."

Garrett knew the conversation was about to get heated.

"Near zero contact, that was the deal going in. Though your tip about the cellist came in handy. If you had a thing for the girl you should have contacted me. I would have asked for your blessing."

"Don't play your games with me. This isn't a joke."

"You don't have to tell me. Your little candy crush was on Centipede's tail long before she was Recruited by S.H.I.E.L.D. Seemed like a good person to eliminate. My bad."

"'Candy crush'? Skye and I have something real going right now."

"Listen, if the job was easy, it wouldn't-"

"Yeah, the job was to blend in. To gather intel on Coulson's revival. That's it. You said yourself that you didn't want any bloodshed."

"That was before I found out that Coulson didn't know squat. You know, you would've had an easier time if I gave the kill order week one."

"Yeah. But you didn't. Now I'm deep into a relationship that is about to head straight down a cliff."

"Look, I get it Ward. She's the whole package, cute, smart, and courageous. I don't blame you, but don't forget what the assignment was and don't forget why."

He wanted to just forget about the assignment, to run away with Skye. He was happy with her, happier than he's ever been. It wasn't a normal feeling for him. Something about it didn't sit well- the idea of living a happy, normal life. When he talked about living a normal life with her, he felt like he really wanted it. But when he thought about it on his own, he couldn't picture it, he couldn't believe it was real.

But he knew Garrett was right. Garrett was the one who pulled him out of a hell. He had to repay him.

Skye walked into Coulson's office and dropped everyone's badges on his desk.

"This wasn't easy. Simmons got choked up when we asked for hers.", she reached into her own pocket and pulled out her badge. "This was big for me. I finally felt like it was apart of something, and now… it's worthless."

He picked up the badges and opened the secret safe behind his desk.

"I was younger than you when Fury recruited me. Just out of high school. Somedays it feels like only yesterday. Other days… a lot longer."

"I heard about Fury. I'm sorry, I know you guys were friends."

"That's an understatement.", he dropped the badges into the safe, "He was my S.O. He was the first male role model since my dad died. Why do you think he's your godfather."

"What? He's my godfather?"

"Oh yeah I forgot to tell you. He was trying to teach you to call him Uncle Nick."

"Well, it's a shame I never got to meet him- again."

After she said that something beeped from inside the safe.

"Is that your badge?"

Coulson took out his badge and opened it to find a list of numbers under the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo.

"They look like coordinates."

"Coordinates to where?", Skye asked.

"I don't know yet. But there's only one person who could have sent these."

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying you might get to meet you god father after all."

He bolted straight out of the door and into the cockpit.

"Melinda- get us to these coordinates."

"Phil… what is this.", he was gone before he she could finish her questions. Skye ran up behind him.

"Skye what's going on?"

"Mom… I, uh, I don't know. We were putting away the badges when his badge started beeping. And he found the coordinates and now he thinks that Fury is trying to communicate to us."

"Oh god…"

"This is good, right?"  
"Um yeah. Go check on what he's up to right now. I'll meet you down there."

Skye left and she sat back down in the pilot seat. May opened the drawer under the control panel and took out an envelope.

It was marked, 'For May. From, your friend."

Fury dropped it in her locker a few weeks after Coulson died before the Battle of New York. She never had the courage to open it. And once she found out that he made it out alive she figured there was no point in opening it. But she kept it anyway. She knew she'd open it one day but she didn't know when. Suddenly she felt she had to.

 _May,_

 _By now you've heard about Coulson's death. I can't imagine what this must be like for you. I know you and him broke it off a long time ago but I know you two never stopped caring about each other._

 _I tried to save him but I was too late. He was a hero._

 _Now, what you are about to read next is top secret. Besides me, Coulson was the only other S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who knew about this._

 _I put him in charge of a project that could potentially revive a fallen Avenger using a drug that we put together using alien blood. At first he had initial success with the regenerative properties of the guest host tissue, but after the physical recovery the subjects began to deteriorate mentally. I don't know what the exact scientific terms are, but it was bad. They started going crazy, something wasn't right. So the scientists here decided to create a machine that would go into his brain and replace any memory of the drug with a much more pleasant one. This didn't sit well with Coulson. He handed in his resignation for this project saying that it was inhumane._

 _I don't know if its wise, but I know that it's right. I'm going to put him through the T.A.H.I.T.I. project. People like us, we need people like him. He didn't deserve this, but if I had the slightest chance to save him, I'm gonna take it._

 _I hope you have the chance to read this, and when you do, call me. We have a lot to discuss._

 _-N. Fury_

May finished reading the note and put it down. She couldn't believe it. She knew it took a lot of unorthodox techniques to bring a man back from the dead, but… alien? This was crazy. And all that those stories he's told her about his time in T.A.H.I.T.I. were fake.

He's suspected this sort of thing ever since Raina kidnapped him. And when he came back from the facility, he was shouting for them not to use the drug. He knew, he just didn't know everything.

She knew what she had to do next.

"So director Fury is alive?"

"What did he say? Does he have a plan?:

"He only sent coordinates."

May rushed down from the cockpit and straight into the briefing area.

"Phil, we need to talk.", she grabbed his arm and dragged him into her bunk.

"Melinda, what are you doing."

She closed the door and hit the sound-proof button.

"After you died, Fury dropped this in my locker.", she said as she pulled out the letter, "I couldn't gather the courage to open it. And when I found out that you were alive, I figured there was no point. But seeing as how things are going to shit right now I thought there might be something in there that could help us.", she held the letter out to him. "I want you to read it."

He sat down on her bed and put on his glasses. She watched him to see his reaction. Once he had gotten halfway down his face started to change. When he finished the letter he looked up at May.

"It was me…"

"What?"

" _I_ was in charge of project T.A.H.I.T.I."

"Really? That's your takeaway? Not the fact that the drug that saved you and your daughter's life is _alien_?"

He broke eye contact with her and looked around the room.

"One second."

"What the hell-"

He ran out of the bunk into the briefing area, grabbed Skye's arm and dragged her into the bunk.

"What's going on?", Skye asked as Coulson closed the door behind them.

"Skye, the drug that we used to heal you was… alien.", May said as Coulson went over the letter again.

"Yeah, I know. Dad told me after I woke up."

Coulson stood behind May signaling Skye to stop taking, but it was too late. May turned around to talk to him.

"You knew about this and you didn't tell me?"

"Melinda it's not like that. I-I didn't know about where the drug came from until we went to the guest house."

"And even after that, you didn't tell me."

Coulson was at a loss of words. He knew May's non-expression expressions well enough to know that the one she was giving him at that moment meant that he was in a lot of trouble.

Skye picked up on it too.

"Well I'm gonna go- looks I'm done here.", Skye said as she exited the bunk.

"Melinda, I know what this looks like but-"

"No excuses, Phil. Give it to me straight."

"Ok…", he sat back down on the bed, "You saw, when I was kidnapped, how badly the the Clairvoyant wanted to know. And when we went down to the facility, men died for this secret. Fury didn't even tell me- I had to dig for it myself."

"What's your point?"

"If that many people were willing to give that many lives for a single secret, I didn't want to put you in danger."

"But you were willing to put Skye, our daughter, in danger"

"She had a right to know."

"Well so did I."

"What do you mean?"

"The two most important people in my life have this drug in their system. And according to this letter, it is highly unstable."

"But we're fine. Nothing's wrong with us."

"Not yet. And you're memory was replaced. What if you can't tell what's real and what's not. How are you gonna be able to make the right decision?"

"I'm fine. I haven't done anything that questionable, have I?"

"Well you have us on this wild goose chase-"

"'Wild goose chase'? That's what you think this is?"

"Phil, there's no proof Fury sent that to you. He's dead Phil."

"Melinda, I'm not imagining this. It's real. Don't you trust me?"

"Don't ever doubt it."

"Ok, then that's it; we're doing this.", with that he exited the bunk and went back into the briefing area.

A few hours later they landed the bus.

"Coordinates are about a 7 mile hike from here.", Coulson said as the team prepared themselves to leave the bus, "Terrain's pretty rough, even if it wasn't covered with snow."

"Agent May and I can lead a scouting party first, make sure this isn't a trap.", Trip offered.

"There's no time. In less than eight hours a NATO satellite will pass directly over us. If the Bus is here, they'll know. I've been doing this long enough to know that something's up there. But this mission, has to be your choice.", he looks around at each one individually, "A lot's changed in the last few days. I know you all have your doubts about what we've been doing, about me.", he glanced at May, "But I don't. Which is why I'm going to find whatever Fury has waiting for us… with you or without you."

He hits the button to open the cargo hold and they begin the long journey to who knows what.

* * *

 **Okay, for all of you Philinda lifers- don't worry. This friction going on between them wont last for long.**

 **Questions, comments and suggestions are encouraged! Thanks for reading:)**


	21. Chapter 21: the BASE

They were hiking for two hours in almost complete silence and there was still almost 3 miles left to go. Coulson was at the front of the group focusing on getting to the location, Fitz, Simmons and Trip stayed close behind him, and May and Skye felt the need to give him some space. Skye was the most annoyed by the silence. Every once and awhile she would whistle or throw some snow at Fitz to annoy him, but nothing broke the awkwardness. Finally she remembered a topic she knew she could actually start a conversation with.

"Hi.", Skye said as she nudged her mom.

"Hi."

"So are you two ok?"

"What are you talking about?"

"You and dad. You were fighting earlier."

"We're fine, Skye."

"C'mon, I'm not a kid. I can tell when something's up. So what's up."

May looked at her any sighed.

"He should have told me when he found out but he decided to keep it from me."

"So are you mad at me? I knew and I didn't tell you."

"You were only doing what you were told to do. It was his choice to hide this."

"But he had a good reason. He didn't want to put you in any danger. He only told me because I'm already in danger with this stuff in me."

"That's true. But who was gonna look out for you two. Something could have gone really wrong and no one would know what happened."

"Nothing went wrong though."

"True, but right now he has us chasing ghosts in the middle of nowhere."

After that sentence the group stopped in front of them.

"This is it. There's gotta be something here. Stay alert, eyes open.", Coulson said as the team gathered around him.

"How long should we look before thinking about heading back?", Skye asked.

"We're not going back. Not until we find whatever Fury has waiting for us."

"What about the satellite?"

"It doesn't matter. The Bus used all its remaining fuel just to get us here."

Everyone looked at him in complete shock.

"Did you know that before flying out into the middle of nowhere?", Simmons said.

"It was the right play. Fury sent us these coordinates for a reason."

May let out a deep sigh. She knew he didn't want to hear what she had to say but she

was gonna say it anyway.

"And what reason is that?"

"I don't know! I don't know but there's got to be something here!", he holds up his badge to show the numbers under the logo, "This means something, this- this has to mean something."

No one said anything. They just looked at the ground and moved around a bit in an attempt to make it less awkward.

"The world needs us! Hydra is out there! We cannot let them win. We- we cannot let them define us! Do you understand that?"

More silence.

"We are not agents of nothing!", Skye looks up at the realization that he is quoting her, "We are agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and that still carries weight! It- it has to carry weight! After everything we've been through, that carries weight!"

Coulson realized how he sounded. He sounded like he was forcing it on them. He wasn't that guy.

"I'm sorry."

He angrily throws his badge up in the air only for it to be shot at with machine guns that came out of the ground. Everyone ducked and ran to find cover.

"Well, it seems like we found it.", Fitz said as he crouched behind a rock.

"Thanks, Sherlock!", Skye said sarcastically.

"Nobody move!"

"I really don't think that's going to be a problem!"

"This is a S.H.I.E.L.D. facility.",Coulson stated.

"Shoot first, ask questions later? Doesn't sound like S.H.I.E.L.D. to me.

"It's not Hydra. It's Fury reaching out."

May, who was behind the same rock as Coulson, had to say something.

"Phil, there's no way you can know that for sure."

He looked at her as she tried to persuade him to give it up, but he had to do this.

"There's one way."

Coulson stood up from behind the rock and walked toward the gun.

"Dad!"

"Phil, wait."

He ignores them and continues to walk.

The gun locks onto him and speaks.

"Identify yourself."

"I'm Phil Coulson, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D."

The gun points toward the sky and lowers back into the rock.

"Welcome, Agent Coulson, we've been expecting you."

Doors disguised as rocks suddenly opened to a long underground hallway. If anyone was denying Coulson before, they certainly weren't now. The team followed as Coulson walked through the door. They shake the snow off themselves and look around.

"What is this place?", Skye asked.

"It's one of Fury's secret bases.", said a man as he walked into the hallway straightening his tie. "I call it Providence. Although, technically it doesn't have a name because technically it doesn't exist, it being a secret base and all."

The team just looked at each other in amazement. They were amazed that Coulson was actually right, that he wasn't crazy and that they didn't believe him.

"If everyone would follow me."

They followed the man through the top secret base into a cafeteria-like room.

"Pretty cool, huh?"

"I'm sorry, who are you exactly?", Coulson asked.

"Eric Koenig, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., level six", he said holding up the badge at the end of his lanyard.

"Phil Coulson.", he said as they shook hands.

"It is an honor to meet you, Agent Coulson. And I apologize for the kerfuffle outside. The precision remote system was designed to destroy any rapidly moving metallic object."

"It was my badge."

"It was – okay. That's gonna be, tough to replace…but very soon you're gonna be issued your very own lanyard. Lanyards for others will be distributed on a case by case basis."

"What happened to director Fury? Is he alive?"

"Fury… didn't make it out of D.C.", Coulson was shocked, "We're all a little shaken up, especially now that the Fridge has fallen."

Coulson looked back at Skye who had a scared look on her face. She took out the sat phone and called Ward.

"Who is she calling?", Koenig asked.

"We had a man at the Fridge."

"Can I speak to you in private.", he said guiding him into a separate room.

" _Skye?"_

"Grant?", Skye said in a shaky voice, "Thank God."

" _Is everything ok?_ "

"Yeah, it's just- we heard the Fridge fell and I knew you were there so… I don't know, I guess I assumed the worst."

" _Don't worry, I'm still here. But it was one hell of a fight. I'm pretty beat. Where are you guys?"_

"Dad found one of Fury's secret bases."

" _Send me the location. I'll meet you there. I really need to see you. With everything falling apart around us- we need to stick together."_

"I love you Grant. I do. Remember that."

" _I love you too Skye. I'll see you in a few hours."_

They hung up and Skye went to rejoin the rest of the team.

Meanwhile in the other room:

"What?"

"Hydra thinks they killed him but he managed to escape D.C."

"You just lied to my team."

"Well, I don't know them. And those are Fury's direct orders. Only a select few people can know that he's alive. Maria Hill, Cap, a couple of others, and now you and me."

"That's it?"

"Oh! Right- he said you can tell Agent May and your girl. I assume you know what that means?"

"Yeah I do."

The base was big enough for everyone to get settled into their own room.

After May finished parking the Bus in the hanger, she went to check on Coulson. She found him in his room sleeping. He must have been exhausted after everything that went down the past couple of days. She sat down on the bed next to him and put her hand on his shoulder. He turned and looked up at her.

"Melinda-"

"Phil, I'm so sorry. I never should have doubted you."

"No-", he sat up on the bed and grabbed her hands, "You were right to do that. I'm not- my brain was messed with. This could've just as easily been a trap. I get why you were concerned."

They shared a brief moment of silence to recognize that they were no longer on bad terms. And Coulson suddenly started smiling.

"Fury's alive."

"What?"

"Yeah Koenig lied to you guys. We're the only one who knows."

"Well, where is he?"

"I don't know."

"Does he wanna help us?"

"I don't know."

"Do you know anything?"

"Nope."

"So what's the point of telling me he's alive."

"Uhhh, he's our oldest bestest friend and we care about each other a lot."

"Oh yeah. Right. Sorry S.H.I.E.L.D.'s on the brain again."

"I can help with that."

He pulled her on top of him and kissed her. Luckily the base had been built with big, solid, bulletproof, soundproof walls because their daughter was in the next room.

* * *

 **Questions, comments, and suggestions are encouraged! Thanks for reading:)**


	22. Chapter 22: the HOLE

Skye lay in her new bed in Providence base unable to sleep. She scrolled through her phone doing anything to keep her mind off of everything that happened the past few days. Literally anything. Trolling Reddit and Facebook, binge-watching the Walking Dead, reading the latest news in Hacker's Weekly- anything. But none of that was working. Then she remembered what her dad was doing when she woke up from the coma.

She pulled up the file marked 'Daisy' on the tablet Coulson gave her. Hundreds of photos appeared. She liked seeing how things were. Even though it was hard knowing that everything would go to sh*t not long after these pictures were taken, it was nice knowing that there was a time in her life that she actually had a family.

She scrolled through all of them, admiring each one of them. But she found one especially comforting.

It was a picture of Coulson laying down on the couch with her laying on his stomach as

they both slept. May must've taken it. She loved it. It was real, something she drummed up in her head. All her life she thought there wasn't anyone who ever cared for her but really she had two people who cared about her more than anything. And now that they've found each other again that hole in her life had been refilled.

"Aww that's cute.", said a voice from behind her. She turned around and it was Ward.

"Grant!", she got up to hug him but he backed away.

"Easy, easy, I think I've got a couple of broken ribs."

"Oh ok. Let's have Simmons take a look at you."

He put his arm over her shoulder and they made their way to the lab.

"I'm afraid this might scar.", Simmons said as she examined the cut on Ward's face.

"Upside you'll look badass, dangerous.", Skye said happily.

"You dig the bad boy look don't you.", Ward commented.

"I can't resist it."

"Leave the cut.", Ward said to Simmons.

"Ahem. Can we get back to SHIELD now.", Coulson said; desperate to change the subject.

"Right, so uh… by the time we got to the Fridge it was overrun. Hydra everywhere. We couldn't stop them."

"What were they after?", May asked.

"Everything. They took weapons alien artifacts. Anything they could grab."

"So I'm guessing that means the prisoners are no longer prisoners?"

Ward nodded his head as he tried to stand up.

"So… Ian Quinn..", Skye asked with her voice shaking.

"I'm sorry, Skye.. He's out. They all are."

"And Garrett? Did he get away?"

"He was one tough son of a bitch."

"'Was', past tense?"

"As soon as I had the upperhand I put two in the back of his head."

Coulson had the most shocked look on his face out of the entire team.

"One for me…',He looked over at Trip.

"I would have emptied the mag."

Trip showed a sense of relief on his face. Ward recognized this and made the same face, only it wasn't real.

"You're all set. Well, I mean, as set as you can be with two cracked ribs and a zygomatic fracture.", Simmons said as she finished applying the bandages to Ward's torso.

"Ah, for those of you that don't know what that is, it's a-"

Trip joined in and they spoke in unison.

"A hairline fracture to the cheekbone."

Fitz looked up and Trip and gave him a surprised look. Everyone in the room besides Simmons realized what just happened. If everything weren't so heavy at that moment, they would have laughed.

"Your body needs time to heal. Please take some time."

"Understood, thanks."

Simmons gathered her things and walked out of the lab to put them away.

"Ah, one small victory.", he pulls out the hard drive from his pocket. "Hydra didn't get their hands on this."

"A hard drive?", asked Trip.

"It's all the research our team's ever done, downloaded off the plane and encrypted for safekeeping."

"We should probably back it up now that we're in a secure facility.", Ward suggested.

"First, Skye, I need you on threat assessment. Pull up a list of all the inmates at the Fridge. I want to know just how bad this is.", Coulson ordered.

Ward slightly sunk into his chair when he realized that it would take longer for her to unlock the drive.

* * *

Skye sat at a table in the dining room looking through the list of inmates as May, Coulson, Trip and Ward waited for her report.

"This is really, really bad. Quinn is the least scary of the bunch and he shot me… twice."

"Quinn won't get to you Skye. Not again.", May assured her.

"Quinn's more of a sociopath. A lot of those inmates are full blown psychopaths. Violent, impulsive."

"And some with superpowers, lovely."

"Is Marcus Daniels on the list?", May asked.

Coulson shot a look back at her. Skye typed in the name and turned around the screen to show a man's mug shot.

"That's him.", May said.

"Melinda? A word?", Coulson said walking into the hallway. May followed.

"What?", she said as he closed the door.

"What are you doing?"

"You know damn well what I'm doing. Audrey's in trouble. We have to save her."

"I know but I didn't expect you to be this eager."

"Why? Because she was your girlfriend? She and I were friends too you know."

"Oh yeah. I just thought that you'd be…. Maybe you'd think it was…"

"That I'd think it was awkward? Phil, my entire friendship with Audrey was awkward. She knew you and I used to be together and had a child and we still hung out."

"You're right. She didn't seem to mind it. We have to help her."

"Thank you.", she said, "By the way you never told me what happened between you two."

Coulson smiled and let out a little laugh.

"She could tell I wasn't fully in the relationship. And she wasn't wrong."

"What do you mean?"

"I guess you and Daisy left too big a hole in my heart. A hole that couldn't be filled with anyone else. I cared about her, yeah, but she wasn't what I needed and I wasn't what she needed."

"So she broke it off?"

"Yeah.", he had a slight frown on his face but his face brightened up when he looked back at May. "But I'm glad she did, cause now I've got you and our little family is back together. The hole is filled again."

She laughed at his metaphor and pulled him into a kiss- a long, deep kiss.

Skye walked into the hallway looking down at her tablet.

"Hey guys- a guy in Portland, Oregon said a man with light absorbing powers-", she cut herself off when she looked up and saw her parents making out. They quickly pulled away from each other and tried to play it off as if they weren't doing anything. "Oh god.", Skye said as she turned around to go back into the dining room.

"W-w-wait.", Coulson said as he reached out for her arm. "What were you saying about Portland?"

"A police report says a man with light-absorbing powers attacked a fisherman. That has to be Daniels, right?"

"Right. Let's get on it.", Coulson said gesturing for the three of them to re-enter the dining room.

"Ok. But for the record, you guys should try to keep your relationship more discreet when we're on a mission."

Coulson scoffed.

"Really… _you're_ telling us to be more discreet? What about you telling Ward how hot he looks when he has bruises when we're trying to debrief him."

"Oh yeah… carry on."

They walked into the dining room to rejoin the rest of the group.

"Ward. The plane you flew in on. Is it operational?"

"Yeah. Do you need me to pilot?"

"You heard Simmons, you stay and get better. I'm gonna take a splinter team out and start going after the inmates on that list, starting with Mr. Daniels. I think I know where he's going. Skye, you stay here and search for where the inmates fled to after they escaped."

"Ok, but that'll take time and more computing power than my laptop. I'm sure Koenig has some sort of-"

"Do it. Trip, you'll come with me, May and Fitzsimmons to take care of Daniels."

* * *

"No, you're not. Absolutely not. You can't leave. There are protocols.", said Koenig in reaction to Coulson telling him that he was leaving.

"Since the entire agency is pretty much collapsed, maybe now's not the right time to stand on protocol."

"Ok fine, then forget protocols. What part of secret base don't you get? Fury said to let you in and you show up with a bunch of people?"

"Agents!", Coulson corrected.

"Whatever. The point is, they know where this place is now, and I don't know know them."

"Hydra just released the entire population of the Fridge into the wild. There's gonna be violence. People will die. And I still consider it my duty to be the shield that protects them."

Koenig sighs and puts his hand over his chest.

"Moving speech, truly. But nobody leaves until they go through orientation."

"Orientation?"

* * *

 **#pheels**

 **Questions, comments and suggestions are encouraged! Thanks for reading:)**


	23. Chapter 23: the ORIENTATION

The team gathered in a small room containing only a high tech control panel and a chair that had a bunch of wiring around it. Koenig stands in front of the skeptical team with a smile on his face.

"All right. I'm just gonna need you guys to answer a few questions. A few psychoanalytic, non-sequitur questions."

"A lie detector?",Coulson assumed.

" _The_ lie detector, Agent Coulson."

Ward tried his best to hide his worriedness.

"This baby measures Galvanic skin responses, oxygen consumption, micro-expressions, biofeedback, brain waves, pupil dilation voice biometrics-", this made him excited for some reason, "96 variables in all. Fury designed this himself. He wanted a lie detector Romanoff couldn't beat."

"Did she?",Ward said as casually as possible.

Koenig scoffed.

"Like Fury would tell."

"Okay. The sooner we get this done the sooner we can get to work.",Coulson said, "So who wants to go first?"

There was a long pause as each member waited for someone else to volunteer. Coulson took it upon himself to elect someone.

"No one?", he asked, "Ok. Fitz you go first."

"Uggh. I swear its always me.", he said under his breath.

Everyone lightened up and gave Fitz a pat on the back on their way out of the room.

 **Fitz:**

"Ok Agent Fitz, what is your full name."

"Leopold Allister Fitz."

"Eye color?"

"Blue."

"Have you ever been married?"

"No."

"Please list your immediate family."

"Just me and my mum."

"What is the difference between an egg and a rock."

"Well, that's absurd. The difference are innumerable. If you want I can start listing them, but then we'd be here all day."

"Have you ever had any contact with Alexander Pierce."

"Nope."

"You wash up on a deserted island alone. Sitting on the sand is a box. What is in that box?"

"How big is the box?"

"Just, say the first answer that comes into your mind. What's in that box?"

His face straightened as the answer entered his mind.

"Simmons."

"S.H.I.E.L.D. no longer exists. The Agency has been labeled a terrorist organization. So, why are you here"

"That's easy. We have to stick together. Keep the people we trust close by. No one else really."

Koenig did a few finishing taps on the control panel and looked back up at Fitz.

"Alright Agent Fitz. Good job. I'll go get your lanyard."

 **Simmons:**

"Alright. What is your full name?"

"Jemma Catherine Simmons."

"What is the color of your eyes"

"Hazel? I really don't know."

"Have you ever been married."

"No."

"Please list your immediate family."

"My mum, my dad, and my little sister."

"What is the difference between an egg and a rock."

"Well, that's absurd. The difference are innumerable. If you want I can start listing them, but then we'd be here all day."

"Fitz said the exact same thing."

"Well they call us 'Fitzsimmons' for a reason."

"Cute. Ok… um. Have you ever had any contact with Alexander Pierce."

"No."

"You wash up on a deserted island alone. Sitting on the sand is a box. What is in that box?"

"That's a hard one. Let me think. The Tardis."

"Oh you're a Who fan? Did you see that Christmas ep-"

"La la la la.",she said to stop him from talking, "I haven't had time to watch any. Skye and Ward hogged the best TV on the Bus for the Walking Dead."

"Alright. But it was awesome.", he turned the page in the giant binder to read the next question.

"S.H.I.E.L.D. no longer exists. The Agency has been labeled a terrorist organization. So, why are you here"

"Honestly, I'm not entirely sure."

He looked down at the panel to check for any irregularities, but there were none.

 **Trip:**

"Please list your full name."

"My name is Antoine Gabriel Triplet."

"Eye color."

"Brown."

"Have you ever been married?"

"No."

"Please list your immediate family."

"Just my mom and I. Dad bolted."

"So you're not gonna mention your grandfather?"

"It's not something I advertise. Didn't want to be treated any different because I'm a legacy."

"If I was the grandson of a Howling Command, I'd have that tattooed on my chest."

"How'd you know that anyway."

"I had my suspicions when I heard your name. Read your file."

"Ah."

"What is the difference between an egg and a rock?"

"Eggs are fragile. Rocks are hard."

"You wash up on a deserted island alone. Sitting on the sand is a box. What is in that box?"

"A sat phone. So I can call someone to get me off that island."

"S.H.I.E.L.D. no longer exists. The Agency has been labeled a terrorist organization. So, why are you here"

"My grandfather fought Hydra back in the day. The good guys won then. We'll do it again."

"Cool. Trip, you lanyard will be ready shortly."

 **May:**

"We're gonna start with some easy questions to establish a baseline. Can I have your full name?"

"Melinda Qiaolian May."

"Eye color?"

"Brown."

"Have you ever been married?"

"No."

Koenig looked surprised.

"You and Coulson never… tied the knot?"

"No, we were 23 when we found out we were having a kid. We thought we were gonna do it sometime after she was born. But our feelings changed after everything happened."

"So are you gonna do it now that you're back together?"

"We've talked about it. I certainly want to. But right now doesn't seem like the right time."

"There's never gonna be a 'right time'."

"What does this have to do with the test?"

"Sorry, I haven't had any human contact in like three years.", May nodded. "Ok please list your immediate family."

"Two parents, no siblings. And Phil and Skye."

"What's the difference between an egg and a rock?"

"Edible, not."

"Have you had any contact with Alexander Pierce."

"I've met him. We shook hands."

"You wash up on a deserted island alone. Sitting on the sand is a box. What's in that box?"

"Machete."

"S.H.I.E.L.D. no longer exists. The Agency has been labeled a terrorist organization. So, why are you here"

"Phil and Skye are here. I stick with them."

 **Skye:**

"What is your first name", Koenig asks.

"Skye."

"And what is your last name."

"I guess technically it's Coulson, but I haven't officially changed it."

"Eye color?"

"Brown."

"Have you ever been married?"

"No."

"Please list your immediate family."

Skye suddenly had a big smile on her face.

"A mom and a dad."

"Woah your dopamine levels just went up. Are you ok?"

"Yeah it's just… I've never had an answer to that question before. It feels good."

"Aw. ok next question: What is the difference between an egg and a rock."

"Eggs are delicious, rocks are gross."

"Have you ever had any contact with Alexander Pierce."

"No."

"You wash up on a deserted island alone. Sitting on the sand is a box. What's in that box?"

"I want to say my laptop, fully charged. But I don't want to seem subversive with the Rising Tide and all-"

"You're overthinking it."

"The laptop would be stupid anyway, there's no wifi. So I guess a phone?"

"S.H.I.E.L.D. no longer exists. The Agency has been labeled a terrorist organization. So, why are you here"

"It's the only home I've ever known and there are people here I really care about."

"Congratulations Agent Skye, let's go get you a lanyard."

She walks out of the room to find Ward waiting in the hallway.

"Got my backstage pass.", she said holding up her new lanyard.

"Piece of cake?"

"If you don't mind talking about yourself.", she puts the lanyard over her neck, "So you'll hate it. Have fun."

She started to walk away.

"Hey, how about you give me some good luck?"

"What happened to 'two broken ribs'"

"I'm feeling better?"

"Nice try. Go take the test. I'll be in my room."

 **Ward:**

"What is your full name?"

"My name is Grant Douglas Ward."

"Please list your immediate family."

"Two parents, a sister, two brothers. Don't have contact with any of them."

Koenig looks at his baseline and sees that is not normal.

"Boy, your baseline's getting a lot of spikes. Are you in pain?"

He takes in a sharp breath and makes a face.

"Yeah, only when I breath. Two broken ribs."

"Okay well try not to move it may affect the results. What is the difference between an egg and a rock?"

"Eggs are food. Rock's a weapon."

"Have you ever heard of Project Insight?"

"No."

"Ever made contact with Alexander Pierce?"

"No."

"You wash up on a deserted island alone. Sitting on the sand is a box. What's in that box?"

"It would depend on the island, where it is, how big, what's the terrain? Is there fresh water?"

"Just say the first thing the comes into your head."

"A pistol."

"S.H.I.E.L.D. no longer exists. The agency has been labeled a terrorist organization. So, why are you here?"

"I'm an agent. It's my duty."

Koenig looks down at the screen and sees that all of Ward's vitals are irregular.

"I need you to give that to me again."

"It's my duty."

Koenig reaches to his right and reveals to Ward that he has a gun. Ward's face falls a bit.

"Agent Ward. Are you associated with Hydra?"

"Yes.", it was the only answer that wouldn't set off the detector, "We all are. They've infiltrated the highest levels of our organization."

Koenig wasn't buying it. He cocked the gun and pointed it directly at Ward's face.

"Like you mean it. Are you Hydra?"

"I am loyal to S.H.I.E.L.D., to Agent Coulson and to my team."

The readings didn't change.

"Do you have another agenda here?"

Ward tightened his hands and couldn't find anything to say.

"Agent Ward, why are you really here?"

He thought about every possible answer. But there was one that he knew would work.

"Skye."

And it was true. He was there because of Skye. Garrett needed her to decrypt the hard drive. But aside from that he really came back just to be with her.

"I came back for her. I love her."

The readings on the screen turn bright green revealing that he is telling the truth. Koenig uncocks the gun and faces it away from Ward.

"Cool."

* * *

"So Agent Koenig, are we free to go?", Coulson said has he walked into Koenig's office.

"Yes, sir. All of your agents passed the polygraph."

"Anything I should be concerned about?"

"Not really. I had a little scruffle with Agent Ward though."

"Really?"

"I asked him if he was loyal to S.H.I.E.L.D. and when he said yes the charts just went off."

"Then why does he have a lanyard."

"Because when I asked him why he was here he said, 'for skye.'. And he said that he loves her."

"And the readings for that-?"

"100%"

Coulson sighed in relief.

"Good. He'd be stupid to come back here if he was Hydra. Skye's mom is Melinda May for god's sake."

"Speaking of Agent May are you guys gonna… you know… tie the knot soon?"

"Koenig what the hell."

"I know- just answer the question."

Coulson sat back in his chair and thought about it.

"Um.. yah. I don't see why not. But… I don't know, right now doesn't seem like the right time."

"Funny. She said the exact same thing."

"You got her to talk to you about this?"

"She was in a lie detector and I had the questions.", Koenig said as casually, "Besides, I miss human interaction. I need juice!"

"Ok, I think you've got enough 'juice'", Coulson said with air quotes around the word 'juice'.

Koenig got up from his chair and stood in front of Coulson.

"You're right.", he started walking away but he stopped and turned around. "Also sir, there's never a 'right time.'", this time he actually made it out of the door.

The door shut and Coulson sat there alone with his thoughts.

 _There's never a 'right time'._

 _Should I?_

 _This wouldn't be something I'd normally do._

 _But then again that hasn't stopped me from doing anything recently._

 _I love her._

 _We're in love._

 _I want this._

 _Forever._

* * *

 **This chapter was really different but really fun. I love giving the characters more backstory: like how May and Coulson were young when they had Skye.**

 **Questions, comments and suggestions are encouraged! Thanks for reading:)**


	24. Chapter 24: the DARKNESS

Usually when Coulson sat with May in the cockpit he was the one doing the talking. A normal cockpit conversation between the two would be 90% Coulson talking and 10% May mentally giving her opinion through various non-expression expressions. It's how their relationship worked and they loved it.

But on their way to Portland, they sat in silence. Coulson just sat there staring off into space deep in thought. May was waiting for him to bring up something to talk about but he never did. Something was wrong.

"Phil…"

He snapped out of his thoughts and quickly turned to her.

"What's up?", he said like nothing was wrong.

"Something bothering you?"

"No. Nothing's wrong. Why?"

"You're not talking and you have on your thinking face."

"What? I don't have a thinking face."

She scoffed and let him think about it. He finally needed to talk about it.

"It's just um… Every time I think about my time with Audrey I just get reminded about how foolish I was being. She's younger than me, a lot. I was looking for something to distract me from what I was really feeling. She was looking for something real. I… I feel like I wasted her time. That's all. In that time we were together she could have found someone to settle down with. She thought it was me but deep down- actually, not that deep down, I knew that that wasn't me."

She knew exactly what he was feeling. Coulson and May had always had lots in common. It was the reason they got along so well. They were so alike that after they separated they reverted into the same coping methods. The main method they both attempted was finding comfort with someone else.

May met that someone else during a mission with an enhanced person. He was the therapist, Andrew Garner.

He was the first person in a long time that made her feel anywhere close to how Coulson made her feel. Andrew helped her forget about her traumas. She never told him about any of them. She didn't like talking and going into detail about what she was feeling. That was something she's only ever felt comfortable doing with Coulson. But she stuck with him.

They got pretty serious in their time together, even moved in with each other. She was happy but nowhere near as happy as when she had a baby and her father. May thought Andrew was on the same page as her but she would find out that he wasn't.

During their trip to Vegas in 2008, Andrew asked her to marry him. She couldn't say yes.

"I know what you mean. The entire time I was with Andrew he wanted something more, whereas I didn't know what the hell I wanted. I didn't know what I wanted until he asked me to marry him. I found out that he wasn't what I needed in my life. He wasn't what I needed to feel whole."

He nodded to show that he understood and looked back into the clouds. May saw that he started to smile.

"Why are you smiling?"

"I didn't realize how alike we are."

"Why do you think we get along so well?", May said as she flipped a few switches to start the descent.

"That's a bad idea, Skye. That's a terrible idea. The NSA's already got SHIELD on its watch list. Why poke the bear? The big, scary, waterboarding bear.", Koenig said to Skye while they were trying to track down all the escaped inmates.

"Ohh! I thought you were a comms agent, not agent of playing video games while hiding in a bunker."

Ward walked into the office to find them arguing.

"You can't goad me into…"

"Grant, can you help me convince Steve Rogers here to suit up, grab his shield, head into battle?"

"Ok, who's he supposed to battle?"

"If we hack the NSA satellites, we can get footage from The Fridge breakout, see who was there, where they went."

This wasn't good for Ward. He was there. Probably seen on the satellite footage Skye's trying to uncover. But he couldn't disagree. It would be suspicious. Especially since Koenig suspects him.

"Well, she's right. It's worth trying.", Skye turned to Koenig to rub in that Ward agrees with her. "You know I can't hack the NSA but I can upload that hard drive you gave me. Get the Acela on the weapons they might be carrying."

"Absolutely we should but we can't. The encryption is location based. We'll have to take a field trip at some point to decrypt it."

Koenig by this point was convinced Skye knew what she was doing.

"Okay! Alright. Color me impressed. Now impress me more. Get me that footage.", he said as he reaches into his pocket and takes out a lanyard. "These are the keys to the sat room. The main frame is in there. Start the hack and send the feed to these monitors.", he handed her the lanyard, "Let's live dangerously."

"Yeah!"

Ward waited for Koenig to completely leave the room before speaking.

"So how long until you get visuals?"

"NSA satellites should be tough. Give me an hour."

An hour later Ward walked into the office to find Skye sitting in front of a bunch of screens showing rooftops.

"Eric?", she said as she turned to see who walked in, "Oh, hey Grant."

"You did it.", he said in reference to the footage on the monitor. "Koenig said you managed to hack the NSA."

"Look's that way. Where'd he go?"

He was a specialist. He was trained to lie. But he was trained to lie enemies, random people; not the girl he loved.

"He's sending everything over to NATO, CIA, Interpol. Guess he thinks they'll take it as a sign of good faith from SHIELD."

"That's smart, though it looks like all I got was a bunch of views of empty rooftops."

"That's alright something will turn up."

He walked over to the bar and started pouring two glasses.

"What are you doing?", said Skye when she saw what he was doing.

"I know it's not really a date, but- it's normal.", he said holding out a glass for her.

His spontaneity made her smile. She put the tablet down and walked over to pick up the second glass. They both downed the whole glass at once.

"Damn. I needed that."

"I know. It's been a crazy couple of days."

"For you especially."

Ward had a confused look on his face as he reached for the bottle.

" _Me_?"

"Yeah, _you._ SHIELD fell, your mentor turned out to me the mastermind behind everything our team's been chasing for the past six months, you had to fight all those inmates and Hydra agents at the Fridge, and on top of that you had to put down Garrett."

"Sometimes I forget how direct you can be."

"It's not that hard when your boyfriend is a rock. I've gotta find new ways to get you to loosen up."

He laughed.

"You've always known how to 'loosen me up'"

"Guilty.."

"Besides I've already told you everything that's ever gonna bother me. Everything goes back to the well. All this stuff with Garrett and SHIELD will never hurt me as much as that day at the well."

She held his hand and turned his chin to bring his lips to hers.

At this point trying to be normal was never going to happen for these two. But that wasn't a problem. The problem was that there were secrets being kept.

Skye pulled away when she felt something wet on his neck. They looked down at her hand and saw that there was blood all over it. Ward felt behind his ear and felt a cut. He stood up.

"Uh… one of my cuts must have opened up.", he turned to leave.

"Grant, let me help."

"No no no no no, it's ok. I'll be right back.", he bent down and gave her a quick kiss before leaving the room.

Ward was taking a while. Skye was getting bored. She wanted to talk to Koenig about the footage but he was nowhere to be found. She remembered that if he was wearing his lanyard, his location would show up on the tablet.

She followed the tablet to a random closet. The room was empty. Skye walked throughout the room but there was nothing besides pantry items.

As she was about to leave, she stopped to look at the map on more time.

All of a sudden drops of blood fell on the screen. She looked up and found Koenig laying against the grid on the ceiling with a red, dripping line on his neck. It scared her, she was confused. Who would- no.

She found herself sitting on the floor of a bathroom with tears streaming down her face. She had come to the terrifying realization.

In a shaky voice she admitted to herself out loud.

"He's Hydra."

* * *

 **Questions, comments and suggestions are encouraged. Thanks for reading:)**


	25. Chapter 25: the LIFE WE COULD'VE HAD

Coulson, May, Fitz, Simmons, and Trip made it to Portland in time to save Audrey from Daniels. But they couldn't stop him. He was still on the run, and he wouldn't stop until he got what he wanted.

They all held up in an abandoned apartment complex. Trip and Simmons walked her up to the apartment the rest of the team was in.

"Who are you?", Audrey asked as they climbed the stairs.

"I'm Jemma Simmons and this is Antoine Triplett. You're safe with us, Ms. Nathan."

"Who are you with? How did you know he was gonna be there?"

"Don't worry all your questions will be answered shortly. We just need to get to a secure location."

They walked up a few more flights of stairs and finally arrived in front of the door. Simmons put her hand on the doorknob and looked back at Audrey.

"They'll answer all your questions.", she opened the door.

Coulson and May stood up and smiled as Audrey walked in.

"Phil. Melinda. Thank god."

May walked over to hug Audrey.

"I knew it was SHIELD. I don't believe any of what they're saying on the news."

"We knew Daniels would come after you.", Coulson said.

"You're safe now. We'll take care of it."

"He's gonna come after me. He knows where I live."

"We know. We have someone waiting there for when he comes."

"No, you can't do that."

Coulson and May shared a confused look.

"You wanna tell us why, Audrey?", said Coulson.

She looked at him and May and realized they hadn't been keeping _that_ close of an eye on her.

"My daughter and my husband are there right now."

The first reaction Coulson had in his head was relief. He hadn't deprived Audrey from finding someone to start a family with.

"You're- You have a family?"

She smiled and pulled out a picture from her wallet.

"I met him a few months after we um… you know.", she smiled after the awkwardness, "And that's Emily. She'll be four next month."

May smiled when she realized what this meant for Coulson.

"I'm happy for you, honestly."

"Thanks.", she put the picture away, "And how about you. Are you two…"

He smiled and walked over to put his arm around May's shoulder.

"Yeah.", there was happiness all over his face at this point, "Things have worked out pretty well for the three of us haven't they?"

"They have."

May was the first to snap out of the nostalgic trance the three of them were under.

"I'm glad we got to catch up, but there's still a psychotic man with powers trying to kidnap you."

Coulson took his arm off of May's shoulder and held up a tablet showing the specs on the machine they planned to use on Daniels.

The plan was to use Audrey to draw out Daniels and attack before he can get his hands on her. It worked, of course. Audrey was safe and the threat was contained.

Coulson and May drove Audrey back to her house. They spent the car ride reminiscing and catching up. They told her about how they found their long lost daughter and about all the crazy things that happened over the past few months. Coulson didn't mention how he was dead and resurrected, it was nice seeing someone from his past who didn't treat him that differently.

Audrey told them how her husband was a fellow cellist and that's how they met. It was like old times, except they were all truly happy.

They pulled up infront of her house.

"So I guess this is it."

"I guess so.", she unbuckled her seatbelt and leant forward into the front seat to be closer to both of them. "Thank you, so much. Not only did you save me from Daniels- twice, but helped me get this point in my life. I have a family that I love and that's all thanks to you."

Coulson looked at May and laughed.

"Well, that _is_ what I was trying to do.", he said sarcastically.

Audrey put her hand on May's shoulder and looked at both of them as a final sign of her gratitude. Coulson and May watched as Emily burst out of the front door and into her arms. Her husband followed and soon they were in a long family hug.

Coulson grabbed May's hand and smiled.

"Let's go."

She shifted the gears and drove out of the normal suburban neighborhood.

"You think our girl's ok, Melinda?"

"She's fine, Phil. Ward's there."

* * *

Skye sat on the floor of the bathroom in complete shock. Ward was Hydra. She tried and tried to find a reason not to believe otherwise. But there was no doubting it. He was Hydra and he killed Koenig. Her mind was going a mile a minute. Her breath was shaky. She wanted to scream, but Ward was out there, she wasn't ready to confront him about it yet.

"Skye?", she heard Ward say from the hallway. She jumped at the sound of his voice.

She had to act fast.

Ward not only lied to her, but he lied to the entire team. At this point it's not about her and Ward. It's about helping the team get ahead of whatever he's trying to do.

The only problem was finding a way to tell them without Ward noticing. She thought back to all those lessons he S.O. taught her. About using the resources around her. The first thing in sight was the medicine cabinet.

Pain killers, toothpaste, bandaids, rubbing alcohol- a nail file.

"Okay I can use this.", she looked around the room for something to use it with. She saw the window with the revolving pictures.

She quickly sketched the words 'Ward Is Hydra' into the window and logged the file in the corner so it would reveal the words when someone removed it.

That was step one. She had to make it seem like she had never seen the body. Skye remembered that when she opened the door to the closet, a coin fell on the ground. That must have been Ward's way of knowing if someone had been in there or not.

She ran into the room ,trying not to look directly at the body above her, and put the coin back.

Ward's footsteps were heard coming. So she ran the the corner as he checked in the closet.

"Think I'd be hiding in a closet?", she said.

"Well you weren't in the office. Where'd you go?"

"Truth?"

"I'd appreciate it."

She thought about what to say. She had to make it seems like nothing was wrong. Like everything was as it was before.

"I was in the bathroom. Had to pee."

He laughed. She could tell he was relieved that she didn't find the body.

"It's so simple here.", Ward said as the walked through the base. "Just you and me," he realized he slipped up, "um and Koenig. But it's still less people than normal."

"I know, it's always been us and the team. Now it's just us."

"Have you ever thought about what it would be like if we left. Together. A life away from SHIELD."

She wanted to scream at him. To punch him in the face and ask him, why. Why did he do this to her. But not yet. She had to maintain her cover.

"All the time."

"Oh really"

"You?"

"Oh yeah."

They returned to the office and sat on the sofa.

"What do you imagine."

"Oh I don't know… We have a house."

"What kind of house?"

"The best house you can imagine, babe. And we have it all to ourselves. No Fitzsimmons, you're parents aren't there."

"But they can visit, right?"

"I guess.", he said sarcastically.

She laughed.

"Go on."

"We live like normal people. Jobs and everything."

"And what are these… jobs of ours."

"Well obviously you'd do something with computers. App development- that sort of thing."

"Naturally."

"And me? I'd be a-"

"You'd be the annoying boy scout leader who takes his job way too seriously."

He looked at her and laughed.

"Sounds good.", he leant back into the sofa and reached out to stroke her hair. "And we can build a little tree house in the back for our little kids."

"Kids?"

"Yeah. It's an imaginary life, why not?"

"I can imagine you with a cute little girl."

"You can?"

She used to. But ever since she found out who he really was she just doesn't know anymore.

"Yeah. She'd tap on your leg for you to pick her up and you'd throw her up in the air and catch her. When she'd cry you'd be as gentle with her as you were with me after I was shot."

"And when she meets a boy I'll scare him so much he'll run away."

She smiled. Something about this conversation didn't seem fake. She still felt for him.

"Oh god."

"What."

"I sound like Coulson."

"What?"

"Yeah, when he first found out about us he told me that if I ever did anything to hurt you he'd kill me or something."

 _Well, prepare yourself Grant. 'Cause I got a feeling that's about to happen,_ she thought.

"Honestly I'm more afraid of what May would do."

"That's true. But you'd never do anything to make them have to do that. Right?"

He grabbed her hand and moved closer to her.

"Of course not."

 _Lie._

He pulled her into a hug and put his chin on top of her head.

"I love you Skye."

"I love you Grant."

 _Lie._

"We have to go."

"What?"

"I just got word from Fitz. The team needs our help. The bus is fueled up, ready to go."

"Well, I should go tell Koenig."

"He's headed outside to open the hangar doors."

"Um, I need to go grab something first."

"Hey, they need us now."

"Of course they do. Lead the way."

* * *

 **Oh my gosh it feels like its been forever. I just started school and it's been crazy. Updates will come ASAP.**

 **Questions, comments and suggestions are encouraged. Thanks for reading:)**


	26. Chapter 26: the PLAN

"Play it again."

"It's the same every time, sir."

"Fitz.."

Fitz tapped a few buttons and brought up the security footage from the bus.

"As I said, all internal camera feeds were erased. But the hanger's landing assist system is separate. The camera tracks movement. So after we left, everything's normal until:"

He stopped the footage to show Ward and Skye walking up the ramp, holding hands.

"Soon after, the plane takes off. But that's all we've got."

Coulson looked back at May who was staring at the screen completely confused.

"Where are they going? And Koenig?"

"Koenig must've gotten onto the plane somehow."

"There's no other way in or out."

"The blast doors and the hangar door are the only exits.", Tripp added.

"And both are undamaged.", Coulson said trying to figure everything out, "So nobody attacked the place and they weren't running away. So why?"

"Maybe Koenig got orders."

"From who? Not Fury. Is there anyone left to give orders? Aren't we just improvising at this point?"

"Fitz, it still wouldn't explain why the communication lines were cut or why they left their phones."

Coulson brought May to the side to speak in private.

"We don't know the whole story yet. Don't go jumping to conclusions.", May said.

"Too late."

"Phil.."

Tripp stood up.

"Hey. You guy's wanna share?"

"Is there a problem Agent Triplett?"

"Yeah. I got some brand new trust issues, so y'all better not be hiding something."

Trip was the new guy. He didn't know how the team worked. Fitz and Simmons completely understood.

"Tripp. We're not hiding anything. Our daughter is somewhere out there and we're just trying to figure out why."

"I get that. But you guys need to make it so that all of us are on the same damn page."

Simmons noticed the change in atmosphere.

"I'll make us some food. We have to eat."

"I'll help.", Tripp offered.

"Uh, no, I'll get it actually, you just stay here.", he said as he ran to catch up with Simmons.

Coulson walked over and sat down onto the sofa.

"Trip, do you mind fueling up the plane. I have a feeling we're gonna have to get out of here soon."

It was a legitimate task that had to be done, but both Trip and Coulson knew that it was just a way to get him alone with May. But he did it anyway.

"Phil, I can see you thinking. Tell me what you got."

"Best case, Koenig knows something we don't. Took a team, kept us in the dark for our safety."

"And the worst case scenario?"

"We've had a wolf in the herd the whole time."

May changed her expression.

"What do you me-"

She was cut off by the sound of Simmons' scream.

* * *

"It's so beautiful.", Skye said as she looked at the sunset ahead of them.

"Sure is.", he looked back at her, "But I've seen better."

She laughed at his pick up line attempt even though it pained her inside.

"Really?"

"What? It's true."

"I'm sure you say that to all the girls, Grant Ward."

He scoffed and leant closer to her.

"There's never been any 'girls'. Just you baby."

"Really? No ex girlfriends, no forgettable flings?"

"No. I was never the type to open myself up to just anyone. Not even my parents."

"But you opened up to Garrett."

"Yeah. He was good. Fooled me like that."

She sat back into the passenger cockpit seat.

' _Fooled',_ she thought.

"What about you? I know you had a thing with that hacker guy; but who else has fallen under your oh so sexy spell."

"Not many. Before Miles I dated a Russian guy. That was fun."

He looked at her concerned.

"Am I not fun?"

"No, no, no. He had an accent. I didn't know what he was saying half the time."

"Then why was it fun?"

"The guy was _jacked"_

He laughed.

"Nice to know you have a type."

"You're not like any of them Grant. They were hackers. Always secrets with those hacker boys. But you? You'd never lie to me. I know that."

She was doing her best to guilt him into confessing. But he wouldn't budge.

"Good."

He stood up and reached out for her hand. Together they walked out of the cockpit and into the bunk area.

"You know, we still have a few hours until we touchdown in Los Angeles. What do you say, we… have a little fun."

No. He didn't deserve her.

"Right now?"

"Yeah. Why not?"

"What about all the other times I suggested we do it while we had down time on a mission? You weren't up for it then- why now?"

"I dunno, it's been a weird couple of days. All I've been thinking about is you.", he moved closer to her and put his hands on her waist, "All of you."

Really? Was he really trying to do this now? He didn't deserve her. She was willing to many things to make him believe she didn't know the real him. She was willing to kiss him; but to have sex with him? No.

"You're all I thought about too. Honestly, through all of the betrayal and snow hiking- the thought of reuniting with you was what kept me going."

He smiled and lent down to kiss her. She was the first to pull away.

"Grant…"

"Yeah babe?"

"Uh as much as I would love to do this… I just remembered there was a few things I have to do to prepare for the hack. It's gonna take a while."

He laughed and put his head down.

"That's fine. We'll just pick up on this later."

They headed to the lab and she started doing some random stuff that had nothing to do with the actual hack.

* * *

Coulson and May ran towards the scream.

"Simmons what's wrong."

She was shaking with tears in her eyes as she pointed toward the closet behind her.

"Eric…"

Fitz ran the corner and bent over to catch his breathe.

"You guys have to see this."

He lead Simmons, Coulson and May to the bathroom at the end of the hall where the sign Skye left was out in the open.

"Skye..", Coulson breathed.

She's playing him.

"Sir what… what the hell is happening?", Fitz asked.

"I don't know. Simmons I'm gonna need you to do an autopsy on the body. Can you do that?"

She wiped the tears from her eyes.

"Yes sir."

"Good. Fitz, go get Trip and tell him to help you get the body down from there."

He left for the hangar, leaving. Coulson and May alone in the hallway.

"Phil."

"I'm gonna kill him."

"You don't know if it was him."

"Melinda! Who else would? There's no one else here and Skye couldn't have done this. He's out there with our daughter doing who knows what."

"You're right."

"She has a plan. We need to get to her before Ward finds out what that is."

Simmons confirmed it. Ward murdered Koenig and now he was out there trying to do who knows what with Skye.

* * *

Skye and Ward walked out of the alley and onto the streets of LA. She took in a deep breath and smiled.

"Ah, fresh air."

"Fresh? The smell of piss and weed is 'fresh' to you?"

"It's East LA, Grant."

"Right.", he stopped and pointed toward and alley. "Hey… that's where we first met."

She put on her fake smile.

"Is 'met' the right word? I was thinking more like 'kidnapped'."

"You were a threat. I was doing my job."

"True. That bag smelled horrible."

"Yeah, we don't wash those."

"Ugh. Seriously?".

They continued walking. Holding hands, to maintain their cover as a regular millennial couple going out for lunch.

"I can't remember the last time I was in a restaurant."

"I know. It's been all tubes, tunnels and plane food."

"Maybe I'll get pie for dessert."

"Dessert? I was hoping we'd be done by the time I finished coffee."

They arrived at the front of the restaurant.

"Do you have any idea how long it'll take to decrypt this drive?"

"For you? I figured 10 minutes."

"Not even close. The GPS will take a hot second to calibrate but I'm working on a laptop. So even at three cycles per byte there are still terabytes of data –"

"Spare me the details. Give me the time frame."

"An hour would be a miracle."

"Coulson needs this yesterday."

"Grant, my laptop's not a time machine. That's the science."

He looked disappointed.

"I guess we're having desert.", he said opening the door to the diner.

* * *

Trip and Coulson were able to locate the plane to the diner in LA. He gathered everyone on to the quinjet and started the flight from the base to her location.

"Are you ok?", Coulson said to May who he could tell was tense as she piloted the plane.

She adjusted her neck and looked at him.

"I'm fine."

"You sure? 'Cause you're making the same face you made when I got your dad drunk on New Year's eve," he leaned forward to get a better look at her face, "Only… scarier.", he reached for her hand, "I'm worried about her too. Skye's a smart girl. Even without her SHIELD training. She'll be fine."

"I know. I'm just pissed that someone who knows what she's been through emotionally would have the guts to layer on more emotional trauma."

"He's Hydra. They don't care about other people. Only themselves."

"That's right. And that's why Ward needs to run. Because when I find him-"

"-you're gonna kick his ass.", they smiled at each other, "I'm gonna need a front row seat to that show."

* * *

 **Questions, comments, and suggestions are encouraged. Thanks for reading:)**


	27. Chapter 27: the CONFRONTATION

"Hey Skye!", said a middle aged waitress.

"Hey Jean!", Skye said as she got up from her seat to hug her.

"Gee it's been awhile hasn't it? Where'd ya go?"

Skye looked over at Ward. He nodded at her to do what he trained her to do in situations like this.

"Well Jean, I met this hunk of gorgeous over her.", she said gesturing to Ward who was sitting in the booth doing his best to look like a self obsessed jock, "We met and it was like… I don't know… we just knew."

"Aw that's adorable!"

"Yeah! We've been traveling across Europe these past couple months.", she pulled out her phone and showed Jean the pictures of them in Dublin, London, and Spain.

"That must've been precious Skye!"

"It really was, Jean. But now we're back here. Couldn't stay gone for too long."

"I know how much you love our blueberry pancakes."

"Mmmm that sounds great right now."

"You got it hon! Be right back!"

Skye sat back down into the booth and Ward gave her a proud and impressed smile.

"What?"

"Nothing… that was really good."

"Thanks. What made you act like a douche bag?"

"You obviously have a reputation about here. A reputation that probably includes dating complete idiots."

"Not cool… but true."

"So how much longer do you think this is gonna take?"

Of course he would bring up the drive again.

"Half an hour."

"You said that half an hour ago."

He stopped talking when he saw two officers enter the restaurant.

"Weren't you the one who told me to relax?", Skye said taking a sip of her coffee.

"Those cops over there keep looking at us."

"Relax, they're just checking out the waitress. They don't know your trying to be someone you're not."

"Oh yeah, who am I trying to be?"

"My impatient boyfriend. Nothing out of the ordinary."

A police car drove past the window, both of them notice. She needs to distract him.

"What's the longest you were undercover?"

"Uh… 16 months."

"When was that?"

"About 5 years outside of the Academy. I posed as a Russian attache at the Embassy in Warsaw."

She scoffed and got back to work on her computer.

"I don't know how Garrett did it."

"Garrett."

"Think about all that time he spent as your SO, being your mentor. Only to lie to your face, to betray you like that."

"It was, uh, difficult to accept. But thankfully that's over."

"Because you took care of him."

He looked around the diner to see that the number of police officers grew.

"Baby… can we not discuss this right now?"

"If you had one more moment before you shot him in the back of the head so heroically, if he was sitting right here and you could say anything you want, what would you say?"

"Skye."

"Would you say he's disgusting? Would you tell him he's a disgusting, backstabbing traitor?", he turned and saw that she was looking directly into his eyes. "Or to rot in hell?"

"Skye, baby, what are you doing?", he said with a slight smile in hope that his cover was still in tact.

"I'm just trying to have an honest conversation for once."

Ward brushed off her comment and saw that the officers were starting to escort people out of the diner.

"They're starting to clear people out. We should go."

"No, I think I'm good here.", she said shaking his hand off of her arm.

"Skye, we've been made. Come on."

"No.", she said as she turned her laptop around showing a police report she submitted. "I tipped them off."

He looked at her like his worst fear came true. Which it did. Skye, the woman he loved, saw him for what he really is. And there was no way she could ever look past that.

"Skye…"

"Hail Hydra."

"All right, turn around.", an officer commanded from behind them. "Hands on your head. Nice and slow."

"Just be careful. He's armed."

As the officer started to put Ward into handcuffs, he fought back. Five agents went directly to Ward giving Skye a chance to run outside.

She ran to a cop car outside claiming that she is a SHIELD agent and that she is a wanted fugitive. They bent her over the hood of a car and started putting on her handcuffs when Ward shot them both. Skye ran to the driver's seat of the car and drove as fast as she could. She saw Ward in the rearview mirror. And out of nowhere, Mike jumped onto the hood of the car and knocked her out.

The next thing she knew she was in the bus again, laying down in the cargo hold listening to Mike and Ward bicker. It was messed up. Two men that she thought she could trust were now keeping her hostage for an organization bent on murder and world domination.

"We have her. And once she gives us a location we'll be off."

"Yeah, that's not gonna happen.", she said getting up off the ground.

"Take a walk,", Ward said to Mike, "I can handle this."

"Can you? You haven't so far."

"Garrett says you have five minutes.", he said as he walked away.

There was a long pause. He looked at her hoping she had some room for understanding.

"I can explain."

The sound of his voice only pushed her over the edge. She was done keeping to herself. Skye grabbed his shirt and head butted him so hard his nose bled.

"You lying bastard! Son of a bitch! You lying-"

"Stop.", he said trying to contain her, " Stop! Stop! Calm down.", he handcuffed her to the stairs. "Ok? Ok? It's over. You can't win."

He walked over to the lab to clean himself up walked back over to her.

"All this time. Everything we've been through. After everything you said to me. Why? How could you?", her voice was starting to break down.

"You did not just say that. It wasn't personal!?"

"Skye, just hear me out."

"God! You might actually believe that. You- that is- that is the twisted logic that they teach you when you sign up to be a Nazi."

"Skye, I'm not a Nazi."

"Yes, you are. That's exactly what you are. It's in the SHIELD handbook, chapter one. The Red Skull, founder of Hydra, was a big fat freaking Nazi."

"It's not like that baby! I'm a spy! I had a job."

"You've killed I don't know how many people. You gonna kill me now?"

"No I would never hurt you."

"Once I crack the drive, are you just gonna shoot me like you did with Thomas Nash, or are you gonna have someone else do it. Like you did with Quinn."

"Oh, of course it was Garrett's fault. That was part of the mission right? You were just gonna kick back and watch me bleed until it's your turn to pull the trigger."

He looked at her like he was hurt that she would think that.

"You think I had a part in that? That I would let that happen to you? You know how I feel about you Skye. I love you. You know that."

"Wait. So even though you've been lying, to everyone about everything, you're saying that your feelings for me-"

"They're real, Skye.", he puts his hands around her face gently to make his point, "They always have been. All that stuff about us living in a house away from SHIELD- that's real. And I know what you said about our future family was real too."

"It was, Grant. But I didn't know that the man that I wanted all that crap with was a murderer."

"Skye. I love you. You have to believe me. All this Hydra nonsense. That can all go away if you give me one more chance."

"I want to believe you. But every word, every conversation, every feeling that we've shared has been a lie. Makes me sick."

"One day. One day when this is all over, you'll understand. You'll understand why I did what I did. And that I love you."

"No, I won't. And I will never, ever give you what you want."

She escaped his grasp and sat down on the stairs.

Mike re-entered the room.

"Times up. Time to unlock the drive."

"No."

"Dammit Skye…"

"Mike I know you don't want to do this."

"It's not up to me."

"Yes it is. I don't care what they did to you. You're still Mike Peterson. You're still a father. You have a son."

"Who I left in your hands. I asked you to look after him Skye. Where is he now?"

"He's with his aunt, under the protection of a SHIELD team."

He shook his head and paced the room in front of her.

"And what is SHIELD today? Hydra can hurt my son anytime they want, and if I get any funny ideas about rescuing him- the push a little button and blow a hole in my skull."

"Fitzsimmons will figure out a way."

"No! There's no way out of this, Skye. Unlock the drive now."

"No."

Mike pulled out a device from his pocket. Ward, knowing what the device does, walked over to Skye.

"Skye. I don't want him to have to hurt you. Just give him what he wants.", he said with his hands on her shoulders.

She took a step away from him.

"Never."

Mike pulled at Ward's shoulder and placed the device onto his chest. Ward gasped and fell to the floor. Skye could tell he was in pain.

"What… what did you do to him?"

"I stopped his heart."

"His heart?"

Perfect. At least he was feeling what he did to her.

"Isn't breathing. He's having a heart attack. I can restart it or not. It's your choice."

"Skye…."

She had to make a decision. What he did to her was terrible. He hurt her in the worst ways possible. And she hated him for that. She wanted him to suffer as much as she was. But was killing him the answer? Skye never liked the idea of having to put anyone down, let alone the man she loved. She wasn't gonna let him take away who she was.

"Ok stop.", she said to Mike.

"Where do you unlock the drive?"

"Mike, just bring him back."

"Where?", he said in a very demanding voice.

"35,000 feet. It's not based on longitude or latitude, it's altitude."

"You're lying!"

"I'm not! I put the password in and I- I start the hack and once we reach altitude it unlocks.", she looked down at Ward who had stopped gasping and the life started to disappear from his eyes. "Now bring him back."

Mike unclenched his fist and Ward took in a big gasp of air. He looked at Skye and she could tell he thought there was still something between them.

Mike took Skye by the arm and put her in front of her laptop.

"Put the password in, start the hack."

And that's what she did. She put in the password and let them finish it. Once she was done Ward walked her to the cage.

"Thanks for uh- saving me back there."

She could not believe he was saying that while walking her in handcuffs to the spot he plans to lock her up.

"Thanks? You think I did that for you?"

"Well yah. You can't deny that you still love me Skye. We're meant to be together."

She stopped walking and just looked at him, wondering what the hell messed him up to make him think that.

"Grant. We are not nor will we ever be 'together' again. I didn't tell Mike the password because he threatened your life. I did it because killing isn't something I'm ok with doing. Unlike some people.."

He was hurt by her words. She saw him as a killer and he was never going to get her back.

"Skye I uh- I'm sorry. You're right. The real me is a traitor and a killer; but that doesn't change the fact that I still think you are the best thing that has ever happened to me. And I'll kick myself everyday for the amount of hurt I put on you.", he sounded genuine for a moment, "But right now, I have to do what I have to do. For Garrett."

"Garrett.", she scoffed.

"He pulled me out of a-"

"- a hell. I know."

"The point is… I owe him. But that doesn't mean I can't want something for myself.", he said as he opened the cage door.

They both walked in.

"You're delusional."

"No, I'm being optimistic.", he stepped closer to her and stroked the hair behind her ear. "You taught me that."

"Grant, just get out and lock me up already."

He stepped back and nodded.

"I'm gonna pilot us back to the base where Garrett is. Once we get there I won't anyone hurt you."

She sat down in the interrogation seat and said, "It won't come to that. The team will come through for me."

He shook his head and locked the door.

Once she was sure she was alone, she put her head back and sighed.

"Come on dad, whatcha got?"

* * *

 **Next chapter: Coulson to the rescue for his girl!**

 **Questions, comments and suggestions are encouraged! Thanks for reading:)**


	28. Chapter 28: the ESCAPE

The cage was completely isolated. Skye had no way of knowing what was going on outside. Ward had taken her phone and her watch. The room was empty. Which was good considering it was meant to keep her and the rest of the team safe from a dangerous person. But at that moment she really wished they'd done a crappier job with the designs.

She was getting bored. Ward had left some of the magazines she kept in her bunk, but she'd already read all of those. All there was to do was to count the tiles throughout the room.

All of a sudden music started playing over the speaker. It was the song her and Ward loved to rock out to in her bunk. What the hell did he think he was doing?

"Quit it Grant!", she said out loud.

" _Oh come on. You love this song."_

"I used to love this song. Seriously turn it off."

The music cut.

" _Fine. We're gonna be taking off soon. Buckle up."_

"I am."

" _No, your not. I can see you."_

"Have you been watching me this whole time?"

" _Yeah… I'm gonna go to the cockpit now. I love you."_

"Shut up."

" _Ok."_

She waited for the plane to take off. She felt the plane moving. Probably taxiing around the runway. But then there was a stop. A long stop. It was unusual. Normally when May piloted the plane they would take off right after they got into position. What was taking so long?

Finally, after ten minutes, the plane took off. It was just her, Ward and Deathlock on the plane. That's why she was surprised when she saw who barged into the cage.

"Dad!"

They looked at each other briefly to let it register that they are together again. She stood up and they ran into each other's arms.

 _Thank god. She's alive.,_ he thought as he held her in his arms.

"Are you ok? Did Ward hurt you?"

He pulled her away to look at her face, still holding on to her shoulders.

"No, I'm ok. Other than the fact that he's a lying traitor. But we can talk about that later."

They smiled at each other. Communicating their joy to see the other through their expressions. Skye's face suddenly fell back into a worried state.

"The encrypted hard drive, I unlocked it for them."

"Forget that we need to move. We got to take the cockpit."

He lead the way out of the cage and into the common area.

"Wait, you came alone?"

"It's ok, I can take Ward."

"No, I know but how did you get past Deathlock?"

He stopped his frantic walking and looked back at her.

"Deathlock's here? On the plane?"

"Yeah? You didn't take him out?"

He turned around and saw Mike walking down from the cockpit.

"New plan- run!", he said pointing to the opposite side of Mike as he made his way to the command center.

"What about you?"

"Skye, get to the cargo hold, now!"

She obeyed. He took out his gun and pointed it at Mike and started tapping on the controls.

"I can't let you leave Agent Coulson."

"It's still my plane. I don't need your permission.", he hit the button that opened the cargo hold door and ran.

He sees Skye trying to put on a parachute as the wind blows her hair. By this time he hears Ward yelling in the background. He runs down the spiral staircase as fast as he can and shoots up at Deathlock.

"I've never used a parachute before!"

"Forget that! Get in the car!"

Ward ran through the door and pointed the gun at Coulson and he jumped into Lola. As he was about to shoot he saw Skye right next to him. He wasn't gonna shoot either of them. But he needed to make it seem like he tried to stop them. He shot around them, trying not to hit Skye.

"Buckle up!"

Coulson shifted the gear to reverse and drove straight off the edge of the ramp. They were free falling. Lola was busted. Next thing Coulson knew, his daughter was flying out of the car. He reached out and pulled her back into the seat.

"I told you to buckle up!"

He continued hitting the button to turn on the thrusters but it just wasn't working.

"Must've hit the thrusters."

This was it. Now or never. They were diving head first down the side a building. His only hope to save his daughter and himself was to try one last time.

He closed his eyes and flipped the switch. When he opened they we flying. Alive. Slowly making a rocky descent into a parking space in front of the Nokia Theater.

He looked over at Skye who looked back at him through her tangled hair. A man who was obviously oblivious to what just happened walked over.

"That'll be $20."

Coulson sighed and reached into his pocket and pulled out a twenty. Skye put her head back and stared with disbelief. After the guy walked away, he put his hand on Skye's.

"Skye.."

"Yeah?"

"You ok?"

"I'm great."

"Good.", he swallowed to catch his breath, "Do me a favor?"

"What?"

"Don't tell your mom about this."

* * *

"Holy…", said Fitz as Coulson and Skye rolled up to the motel the team agreed to meet at. "What the hell happened to Lola?"

They got out of the car and gave him a look that said 'you don't want to know'

May burst through the door of a room and went straight for Skye.

"Oh my… thank god you're ok."

"I'm ok too Melinda."

She pulled away from Skye and looked at Coulson. She couldn't hide her smile. She looked down at Lola and saw that she was covered in bullet holes and her tires were flat.

"You might be ok, but your car isn't."

"Don't remind me."

May and Skye laughed together.

"Don't worry sir, I got this.", said Fitz referring to his ability to fix virtually anything.

"Thanks."

"So what happened? Who was shooting at you? Was it Ward?"

Skye looked over at Coulson unsure of what to say.

"Why don't we go inside."

Simmons could tell they needed some family time so when Trip started to walked into the room with them she grabbed his arm.

"Trip, Fitz and I could use your help out here."

"But I was gonna go inside and-"

She gave him a look hoping he would read it correctly. He did.

"I guess I can stay here."

"Phil, come on."

"What."

"What really happened?"

"I told you. Skye was locked up in the cage and I got her out. We ran into Ward and Deathlock and that's where the bullet holes came from. When I got the chance I drove Lola out of the bus and she flew smoothly with no problems what so ever and we landed safely in front of the Nokia theater."

"Really, you landed safely. With no problem what so ever."

"Yeah. Right Skye?"

"Yup, no trouble at all."

May walked over to her tablet and started tapping.

"Oh, ok. Well, then I guess you wouldn't know anything about this new photo that's been trending the internet for the past few hours."

She turned over the tablet and revealed a photo of Coulson and Skye diving to their death in LA.

May raised her eyebrows as she watched their shocked faces.

"Ok… maybe not so smoothly."

"Oh really.", May said sarcastically.

"Mom, come on… that's not even the worst part of my day."

May looked over to Coulson because they both knew what she was talking about. They sat on each side of her, putting their arms on her shoulders to let her know that they were there for her. She put her head onto Coulson's chest and let out all the tears she kept in throughout the day. May leaned in and held her hand.

"We'll get him.", said Coulson in a gentle voice. May always liked it when he used this voice. He used it whenever she needed to calm down, and he used to use it when their baby wouldn't stop crying. He had a natural fatherly instinct that she noticed from the first moment he held their daughter in his arms. He was meant to be a dad. That's how she knew it killed him when he couldn't be one anymore. But she was glad to see him stepping back into his old self.

"I know.", said Skye as she sat up and wiped away a few tears.

"And when we do…", May said swiping Skye's hair out of her face, "His ass better run."

All three of them let out a much needed laugh.

"I was so stupid. I should have seen it."

"Hey, don't do that to yourself. None of us saw it coming. We thought he was a friend. And I'm pretty sure he loves you for real because look at us… we're alive. He was never gonna shoot you. And he knew you would never forgive him if he shot me."

"So you're saying I should forgive him?"

"Hell no. That son of a bitch needs to go."

"Good. 'Cause I can't see past him lying to me. To us."

* * *

 **Questions, comments and suggestions are encouraged! Thanks for reading:)**


	29. Chapter 29: the RAGE

Skye gazed in amazement as she watched her parents zip down from the second story of the Cybertek building dressed in Fitzsimmons' clothes. She got out of the driver's seat and stood in front of them as they dusted themselves off.

"Damn. That's what I can an extraction. Bad. Ass.", said Trip.

"Hell yah.", Skye walked over and nudged him, "Hey… those are my parents right there."

"It's all her.", Coulson said pointing to May, "You should have seen her take out that security guard in the hallway. Hot."

Skye made a nauseous face as she watched them make flirty faces at each other.

"Yo uh… why don't you guys save that for later. We got some bad guys to catch."

"Right. Everyone in the van."

They made their way back to the motel and started looking into the files they took from the

Palo Alto office. They uncovered the fact that Garrett was the first version in the Deathlok program.

"How do we know Garrett didn't do that to Ward too? Maybe he's been programmed.", said Fitz.

"Fitz, when are you going to stop clinging to the idea that Ward's the victim and not the perpetrator?"

"When I see something that tells me I shouldn't with my own two eyes. We don't know all the facts."

Skye was tired of hearing Fitz's in denial theories.

"You want a fact, Fitz? Gra- Ward murders people.", she stopped talking to him and started to talk to herself. "I should have let Mike finish him when I had the chance. I'm stupid and- and weak."

Coulson and May looked over at each other. He nodded to let her know he could handle Skye.

"You weren't weak. You had compassion, that's harder.", Skye wasn't buying it. "We'll get him."

A pizza guy walked into the pool area.

"Pizza delivery for Pablo Jimenez?"

It took a while before Coulson realized it was him.

"Oh uh. That's me."

When he turned around to pay for the pizza Skye stormed into her room.

"Pablo Jimenez? Really?", said Fitz.

"What? Hydra might find us if I use my real name."

"But at a pizza place, Sir?"

"Do you want the pizza or not, Fitz?"

"Hand it over."

They all took a break and finished the pizzas. It disappeared rather quickly. None of them realized how much they missed non-plane food. May set a few slices aside for when Skye decided to come out. But she never did. She needed to talk to her. She knew for a fact that if Skye was anything like her, she shouldn't be hiding her emotions like that.

"You never came out to eat.", May said setting the pizza on the bed next to her.

"Not much of an appetite."

"Doesn't matter. All you've eaten in the past 24 hours is that piece of candy your father gave you last night.", she pushed the pizza closer to her. "Eat it."

"Fine.", she said as she took a bite.

May sat at the foot of her bed.

"You were pretty hard on Fitz out there. Wanna talk about it?"

"Not really. I just can't keep listening to his theories about Ward. Not when I know for a fact that there is nothing about that man that is worth redeeming."

"Fitz can't process the truth about Ward. Not yet. He'll come around. But right now that's what he needs to believe."

Skye finished her pizza.

"Do you think he's being controlled?"

"Absolutely not. You?"

"At first, I thought it was a possibility. I was hoping he had whatever Mike has. That he was being forced.", her eyes began to water but she pushed it down. "But then when I saw the two of them together I knew it couldn't be. Mike- he… he was a statue. A robot. When he was doing his orders from Garrett he didn't show any emotion. Because that's not who he is. But Grant… it seemed natural for him to be in the position of a kidnapper. He says that he still loves me. And once this is all over we can go back to the way we were. But the version of him I got to know was an act.", she ran her hands over her face. "Uggh this is so messed up."

"What's new? You're entire life's been messed up."

Skye laughed at her bluntness.

"Got me there. What do you think about this whole Ward thing?"

May's face tensed up.

"What do you think? I'm pissed. Furious, actually. Maybe not as much as you, but close."

"How do you keep it down? I'm one broken nail away from rage punching this pillow."

May scoffed.

"Tip from a former pillow puncher: don't waste that hate on a tantrum."

"What do you mean?"

"All that hate? Push it down. Save it. It won't go away, but it will come out when it needs to."

"Is that what you're doing now? Pushing it down?", May nodded, "I wish it were that easy for me."

"I'm up most mornings at 5."

Right after that there is a knock at the door, though, it doesn't really matter since Coulson doesn't wait for an answer before he comes in.

"Trip ID'd a number of Cybertek shipments that ping pointed across the globe. Brazil, Cambodia, Syria, but they all ended up in Havana.:

"SHIELD used to have a base there.", May added.

Coulson smiled.

"I told you we'd find them. We're going to Cuba.", he slammed the door as he rushed back to his room to pack up. May and Skye jumped at the sound of the loud noise.

The team landed in Cuba. Coulson, May, Skye and Trip went to check out the base Garrett and his men were and Fitz and Simmons went to track down the bus.

Hydra had left the base by the time the four of them got there. But Skye still had a way to track them. They just needed to get into the base. Despite running into a few super soldiers, they managed to get the job done.

The four of them managed to make it back to the quinjet and they waited for Fitzsimmons to make contact. But they never did.

"No."

"We can't think about that right now. They may have been captured. Either way they risked everything to put a tracker on that plane for us. Now we know exactly where Garrett is, and Skye can see what he's doing.", Coulson could tell Skye was still thinking the worst about what happened to Fitz and Simmons. "If Fitz and Simmons are still alive, then catching Garrett is our only shot at finding them."

After a few hours of flying they were 30 minutes from landing near the Palo Alto Cybertek office.

"Trip and I will crest the ridge, use a noisemaker to grab a three-wheel, maybe something with more fireworks and open a window for you two.", he said to May and Skye. "You crawl in, grab the dealer, force his hand. He'll get us our ace in the hole the Bob's your uncle."

Skye finished loading the last of her gun and stood up.

"Roger that."

"Makes it sound easy."

"Phil, it's a solid plan you've mapped out, but it hinges on a gamble, a big one."

"And back up isn't coming. It'll be just the four of us. We'll be outmanned and outgunned. But Fury always said… a man can accomplish anything when he realizes he's apart of something bigger. A team of people who share that conviction can change the world. So what do you say? You ready to change the world?"

Trip and Skye smiled and nodded in agreement.

"No.", May said as she stood up. She clicked the mag and finished, "I'm ready to kick some ass."

Coulson couldn't help but smile.

"That works too."

They landed at a dirt lot not too far from the offices.

"K, I'm gonna go check out where we should attack. Call you when I get a location.", Trip said to Coulson as he left the jet.

"Skye we should get into position too. We don't have that much time."

"Got it."

They turned to walk out of the jet.

"Wait.", said Coulson. He stood up and stood in front of the two of them. "While you're out there kicking ass and being your regular badass selves-", he sighed, "Be careful. It was hard enough losing both of you once. I-I can't do that again."

May and Skye smiled at eachother.

"We'll be careful, Dad. You won't lose us. I promise."

He grabbed the two of them and kissed both of their heads. Skye smiled and turned around to leave. May waited until she was completely off the plane to speak.

"Don't you do anything stupid. Like threatening an alien god with a weapon you don't even know the abilities to.", she said sarcastically.

"I won't.", he said with a big smile on his face. He pulled her closer and put his lips on her's. It was a long one. He didn't plan on it being a long one, it just kinda happened. And she didn't pull away. All he could think about was how much he loved her. When he came to his senses he separated. He stared into her eyes and said, "Will you marry me?"

* * *

 **Wow that was a really long wait for this chapter huh? I'm so sorry! School is just.. lol you know. I'll try my best to get these to you guys as often as possible!**

 **FYI: I _am_ taking ALL of your recommendations into consideration when writing these chapters. So keep 'em coming! **

**Questions, comments and suggestions are encouraged! Thanks for reading:)**


	30. Chapter 30: the NEW BEGINNING

"What?"

His hands were on the sides of her face. He noticed she was confused, surprised even. But this was right.

"Will you marry me?"

She was still a little caught off guard.

"Phil-", she couldn't find her words.

"Melinda we have done some crazy, life threatening, sometimes life taking, things in the past 30 years and we're about to do another one. What do you say, when you're done kicking ass over there… we do something even more kick ass.", he stood back, and down on one knee. "Melinda, I can't pronounce your middle name, May. Will you marry me?"

She sighed and a smile fell over her face. May was never one with words. But to Coulson her actions spoke volumes. With that in mind, she pulled him up by the straps of his bulletproof vest and kissed him. She did pretty well in making sure he knew exactly what she was feeling.

By the time she pulled away, he was the one without words. He was out of breath and totally disoriented. That's how she knew she had done her job.

"So… that's a yes?"

"Yes!"

At this point they were smiling uncontrollably. Unable to take their eyes off of eachother. They leant in for another kiss when…

" _Yo Coulson! I got a spot. Where you at?"_

They jumped at the interruption.

"Dammit Trip.", Coulson said under his breath.

" _What was that, Sir? I didn't catch that."_

"Nothing. Send me your location. I'll be there ASAP."

" _You got it."_

He turned off the coms and looked back his now fiance and sighed.

"Let's finish this so we can get married. What do you say?"

"Let's do it."

* * *

Skye stood over the man she attached a bomb to. Doing her best to intimidate him. Which wasn't hard considering she was the one who put the bomb on his chest. But all of a sudden, a familiar voice filled her ears.

"She's not going to kill you. She had a chance to kill me before and couldn't do it. Ad she hates me… a lot."

She turned and saw Ward walking down the aisle with his gun pointed at her. But she wasn't scared. He wasn't going to shoot her.

"I feel sorry for you, betraying the only people who gave you the chance at being a decent human being. Betraying me…", she remembered the words Coulson told her before about having compassion. "Fitz was a hero because he still wanted to give you a that chance after everything. But some people are just born evil I guess."

"Yeah, maybe they are. But that doesn't mean I can't still love you."

"Oh, you're not the evil I was referring to. Garrett is evil. You're just- weak- doing anything you're told. I hope Garrett orders you to walk into traffic."

"You're right, Skye. You woke up a weakness inside me. And for the first time in awhile, I wanted something for myself.", we was now holding the gun an inch away from her face. "Maybe I'll just take what I want. Wake up something inside of you."

"I'm not afraid of you Ward."

He caught that she called him Ward instead of his first name like she normally did.

"Wow. Now that hurts. Calling me what everyone else calls me to show that you don't have any feelings for me anymore? That's not gonna kill me. We'll be together again someday, I know it. But that bomb you're in control of right now? You wouldn't set it off. You'd go too."

"No, I have a weapon much better than a bomb that will absolutely destroy you."

"And why's that?"

"Because it's my mom. And she's really pissed off."

May came out of nowhere and punched Ward right in the face immediately bringing the fight into the other room.

The fight got pretty interesting. Both of them were trained at SHIELD; cut from the same clothe. Only May had some tricks up her sleeves.

May was a complicated woman. Not many people understood where she was coming from. Fighting is her passion. It's what makes her feel good. It's therapeutic. Whenever she was feeling sad, angry, or even happy, she found herself on the matts, forcing someone to spar with her. At this particular moment she was feeling all sorts of things: hate, betrayal, immense love. All of those contributed to the amount of effort she put into stopping Ward.

"You know one day, you'll look back at this and realize that it was a mistake.", Ward said as they continued to fight. "After Skye realizes she never stopped loving me."

"You're delusional."

He had May pinned down on the floor.

"Am I? Skye didn't let me die."

He continued to talk, giving her more time to look at her options.

"She's not that kind of person…", May reached out, grabbed a hammer and whacked Ward's head. He was a little disoriented, but he could still she her standing over him. She took a nail gun and pinned his foot to the ground. "But I am."

"May… May stop I-", he couldn't finish his sentence because she punched him in the throat.

"I've been waiting long enough for this.", she then dropped the nail gun and did a roundhouse kick, knocking him out.

* * *

"Sir?"

"You don't have to call me 'Sir' Coulson. Look at me, I'm dressed like I live under a bridge."

Coulson remained on the floor looking up at his old friend. He had just been thrown by a newly enhanced version of John Garrett.

"What are you doing here?"

"Simmons turned me onto that old-timey tracker that Fitz left on your bus.", Garrett's men were shooting at them. But they were only able to hit the tanks in front of them. "I went to great pains to make sure you didn't die the first time."

Coulson scrambled to his feet.

"Well now's probably not the best time but… I'd like to have a lengthy conversation with you about that.", shots continued to fire. "It might get loud."

"And I owe you that. But right now, we owe Garrett a punch in the teeth, wouldn't you say?"

Once Fury got there Coulson knew there wasn't a chance Garrett was getting past them. Which he didn't. Eventually they were able to defeat Hydra for the time being.

But best of all, Ward was in their custody. He was brought in handcuffs in front of Coulson and May before he was locked up.

"You got a chance to express all your feelings?", Coulson said to May while staring at Ward with a big smile on his face. He couldn't hide how happy he was to see the man who broke his daughter's heart at a low.

"Is he still breathing?"

"Guess she kept some of it to herself."

"He's having trouble speaking. I think I fractured his larynx."

Coulson turned away from Ward to see that May was also enjoying this.

"Oh good.", he turned back to Ward and stood right in front of him. Your attempt to cross off Fitz and Simmons failed. But Fitz may never be the same again. So, I'm going to invent new ways to ruin the rest of your life. And we'll do whatever's necessary to get HYDRA intel from you, but your torture – it's going to be internal."

"And a little bit external.", May added.

"Sure. Some of that. But you gave up your chance at being a decent human being by betraying the team; by betraying Skye. Instead you chose to devote your life to a deranged narcissist who never gave a damn about anyone. You've got your entire life to wrestle with the question- who are you without him?"

Ward couldn't look Coulson in the eye.

Coulson started to walk away, but he stopped and turned around when he remembered something else.

"And Ward? Never underestimate a father threatens to hurt you if you do anything to hurt his daughter. Especially if that daughter's mother is Melinda May."

The guards took Ward and put him in the cage.

"You always had a way with word, Phil."

"I hope so. I'm about to have a talk with Fury. Please come."

* * *

"Are you kidding?", asked Fury

"No? I'm totally ok with the fact that you used alien blood to bring me back to life when I warned you several times that it drives people insane."

Fury looked over at May confused; an emotion he did not show often.

"Really?"

"Well at first I was a little mad, but then I realized if you never did what you did, then I would have never met my daughter again. And I never would have known how to save her when she was shot by Quinn. So really I should be thanking you"

Fury leaned back in his chair and looked at Coulson with amazement.

"Well, I guess my work here is done. Now where is that goddaughter of mine?"

"I'll go get her.", May offered.

Coulson watched and waited for May to leave the room completely. Once he saw she turned the corner and couldn't hear them anymore, he jumped off of his seat and ran to open his bottom desk drawer.

"Ok I only have a few minutes, so try to keep up ok?", he kept on digging through the drawer. "Now that everything is back to the way it was before- you know, besides the hole SHIELD falling thing- May and I decided we want to get married."

"Finally. Go on."

"And yesterday, I ran to the mall down the street and bought these.", he pulled out a box from the drawer and opened it to reveal two rings. They were identical but one was on a necklace.

"What's with the necklace?"

"Melinda's never been one for bling. And every time we go undercover she says the ring on her finger messes up her fighting."

Fury took the box and held it up to his one good eye. He found an inscription on the inside of the rings.

 _Never giving this up again._

It was a simple phrase. Almost everyone in the world has said it before, but for Coulson and May it meant the world.

They gave up on their relationship and finding their daughter because there was no where else to turn. But now they are all back together. They'd never have another reason to give it up.

"That's cute. Very suitable for you two."

"Thanks sir."

"Anything else?", Fury asked.

"Yes. I was wondering if you would perform the ceremony for us."

"What?"

"I know your certified. You did Clint's wedding."

"That was only because no one could know."

"And technically no one could know about this. Since everyone thinks I'm dead. Also? Why can't I tell anyone again?"

"One question at a time, Phil."

"Fine. Will you do the ceremony? Please?"

"Fine."

Right after that, May walked in with Skye behind her. Fury quickly put the rings under his seat cushion.

"Here she is."

Skye walked in front of Fury and extended her hand.

"Nice to meet you ,sir."

Fury smiled and stood up, leaving her hand there.

"Hell with the 'sir' girl. I'm Uncle Nick."

She put her hand down and loosened up.

"Well Uncle Nick, it's nice to meet you. I'm Skye."

"Skye?", he looked over at her parents.

"Yeah I uh, I didn't grow up being called Daisy. Although I am looking at my options."

"Well… Skye… I'm glad you found your way back home."

"Me too.", she looked over at her parents who were enjoying the view of their daughter reuniting with Fury.

"Now Coulson.", Fury said walking over to him. "I know you have a lot planned in the near future. But there's something that I need you to do."

"Anything. What is it."

"You've always been the ideal SHIELD agent. You've always lived out the principle in which SHIELD was built upon."

"Thanks."

"I'm not done."

"Ok."

"Before it was torn apart SHIELD was a lot of moving parts. Guys like you were the heart. Now…", he reached into his pocket and pulled out a tiny black box. "You'll be the head."

Coulson took the cube.

"What is it?"

"A toolbox. To help you build it back up."

Coulson looked over at May and Skye. Skye's amazement was all over her face.

"You want me to start over, rebuild SHIELD."

"From scratch. Take your time, but do it right."

"You two will have his back right?"

"Of course."

"Thank you. How do you- how should I proceed?"

"That's up to you… Director."

"Wait, Fury.. What about you? Where are you going.", May asked.

"Well, I'm trading in my bird's eye view for two solid feet on the ground."

"So I guess this is goodbye.", May assumed.

"Not yet May. We got a wedding to go to."

The three adults in the room smiled. While Skye sat there confused as all hell.

"Wait who's getting married?"

* * *

 **That's the end of the first season! The next few chapters will be what happens between season 1 and season 2. Keep sending requests!**

 **Questions, comments and suggestions are encouraged! Thanks for reading:)**


	31. Chapter 31: the MEMORIES

The team had taken the week off before opening the toolbox and getting started. They all needed some personal time to regroup their sanity. Trip was dropped off in Atlanta to see his mom and let her know he was ok. Coulson recommended Simmons do the same with her family but she didn't want to leave Fitz's bedside while he was in a coma. They were dropped off at a SHIElD facility in upstate New York that managed to stay immune to HYDRA infiltration.

"So we've been up here for- what is it now… 5 hours? Think you might wanna tell me where we're going?", Skye asked as she sat in the cockpit of the bus with her mom who was piloting the plane. After they dropped of Trip in Atlanta, Coulson and May wouldn't tell Skye and Fury where they were going. They wanted it to be a surprise. Skye was kept off of all electronic devices and forced to stay with May.

"Not really. But we'll be there soon."

"Good. I don't know how much more of this seat I can handle. So uncomfortable."

"Didn't look too uncomfortable when you were sleeping in it for 4 hours straight."

"True. That was the best sleep I've had in awhile. I guess knowing Grant's taken care of has taken a little weight off of my shoulders."

Something amazing the controls beeped. Skye had no idea where it came from but May knew exactly where it was. She pressed a couple buttons and got up out of her seat.

"Come on. We gotta go."

"Fury's gonna take over. Phil and I have no idea where we're going either."

"What? Why didn't you tell me that?"

"I don't know. Fury told me not to."

"That is one strange man."

"You have no idea."

They walked out of the cockpit and past Coulson's office. Skye heard some whispering coming out of it and stopped. May realized she stopped and turned around.

"Why'd you stop."

"Um… I think I want some of that candy dad hides in his office. I'll meet you downstairs."

"K. No funny buisness ok?"

"You got it."

May continued downstairs and Skye knocked on the door.

"Is everything ok in there?"

Fury opened the door and smiled when he saw it was just Skye.

"Everything's fine sweetheart."

She looked passed him and into the office. She found Coulson at his desk writing something on a yellow legal pad. He looked stressed. His sleeves were rolled up, his tie was undone, his hair was messy. Every now and then he'd erase and try again.

"Are you sure? Look at him.", Skye said to her god father.

He sighed and stroked his goatee.

"Yeah uh… he's… stressed. I have to go land this thing. Why don't you try and get him to give it a rest."

"I'll try."

After he left she slowly closed the door so it wouldn't startle Coulson.

"Hey dad."

He took a double take.

"Oh, hey Skye how are you?", he continued to write on the pad.

"I'm fine. You?"

"I'm great.", he looked up at her and saw that she had her eyebrows raised. He took off his glasses, fell back into his big leather chair and let out a big sigh. "Maybe… not so great."

She let out a little laugh and sat in the in the chair in front of him.

"What are you doing?"

"Wedding vows!", he said in a sarcastic tone.

"Why are you so stressed then?"

"Because it's been 30 years. We've had 30 years of ups and downs together. And after each up and every down I've loved her even more. I'm just trying to find the right way- the perfect way- to tell her that."

Skye laughed.

"What."

"Oh nothing. You just spent hours trying to find the right words on that yellow pad- and as soon as you put it down you said exactly what you needed to say."

"What do you mean."

"I mean you don't have to worry so much. Once you relaxed whatever you were trying to put on that paper came out easily." She got up and walked over so she was behind the desk with him. "You'll do fine. Dad. And even if you don't we'll still love you anyway."

He laughed and got up to give her a hug.

"Thanks, Skye."

"No problem dad."

She let him go and opened one of the drawers in his desk.

"Um what are you doing?", Coulson asked.

She held up a bag of swedish fish and gummy bears.

"How did you know those were there?"

She said nothing. All she did was smile and walk out of the office.

He smiled and shook his head.

"Just like her mother."

Right after that all the windows in that plane shut and Fury's voice came over the intercom.

" _Y'all better buckle up we'll be landing in 5."_

Coulson made his way down to the break area to join May and Skye. It was a rocky landing. Fury wasn't as great a pilot as he made himself out to be. 10 minutes after they landed Fury finally came down.

"All right. What are you guys waiting for? Let's go outside."

They gathered in the cargo hold.

"Alright. Where are we big guy.", Coulson asked.

"You tell me, Coulson.", Fury said as he punched the button to open the ramp.

It lowered and revealed the San Francisco skyline across the bay.

"Woah is that…"

"San Francisco.", Fury finished.

"But why are we looking at it? Where are we?", Skye asked.

Coulson and May had big smiles on their faces. They were having one of their mental conversations while Skye just watched.

"Hello? Where are we?"

"Fury…"

"This is…"

Neither of them could find the words to let him know how much they appreciated this.

"Don't mention it."

They all looked at Skye who was still really confused.

"Come on, Skye let's go see Sausalito."

* * *

It was night by the time they landed. They checked into a hotel and had dinner at one of the best sourdough clam chowder bowl restaurants in the bay. They were all enjoying themselves. It was a good way of taking their minds off what they had just been through.

After dinner the four of them took a little walk by the water. May held on to Coulson's arm and walked ahead of Skye and Fury.

"So tell me again why we are in Sausalito?", Skye asked Fury as they walked behind Coulson and May.

"They were assigned their first mission here. Must've went pretty well considering they came back to HQ a month later attempting to hide their new relationship from me."

"What? You're saying they didn't start dating at the academy? I always assumed…"

"No- they've been really good friends since the academy I know that for sure. They met when they were both assigned to be trained by me."

"Oh, so you really have been there since the beginning."

"I guess so."

"So you were the one who taught my mom all those badass moves?"

"No no no. She was already badass when she got to the academy. I just showed her how to use that skill in the real world. She picked it up pretty fast though. I'll tell you one thing- my favorite part of the day was when I got to see her beat up Phil on the matts."

"Is that why whenever she suggests they spar he finds a way to get out of it?"

"Definitely."

"So… how long was it until they found out they were expecting me?"

"About a year after their mission in Sausalito."

"Wow that quick huh."

"Yeah. Let me tell you- your dad was quite a nervous wreck in the beginning. He came into my office one day and told me the news. It was quite a surprise to me. But it seemed like an even bigger surprise to him."

"Really?"

"Yeah. But he got it together pretty quickly. He was ready for you months before you came out. And once you did I'd never seen him so happy. Well except for right now."

"They seem so happy. They literally just escaped from that Hydra mess. It must be nice to have someone that's gonna be there with you. To have someone that can recover with you. It's like once they see each other nothing else is wrong. It's amazing."

"I heard about what happened with you and that Ward guy. I've never had much luck with that part of my life myself- but that's me. You don't need to worry, Skye. You're still young. Ward won't be the last guy to fall for you."

"Thanks uncle Nick."

* * *

"Remember the last time we were this close to the bay, Melinda?"

"I'd prefer not to."

"Come on. I got you out."

"After five hours."

"You're right. That _was_ a little long."

"But I do remember what happened after that."

"Oh yeah. When I came to your room after to make sure you were ok. You had just gotten out of the shower. I remember realizing just how beautiful you were. How lucky I was to be your partner."

"I remember you wearing your old OP's wrestling t-shirt and sweats and how good you looked in them. I also remember being pleasantly surprised at how right it felt when you leant in for a kiss after you made sure I was ok."

"Ah yes… the biggest risk I ever took. If you didn't feel the same as I did you probably would have hit me or something."

"But imagine if you never did.", they simultaneously looked back to see Skye and Fury talking.

"Then we wouldn't be here. With them."

"I love you so damn much Melinda May."

"Phil Coulson, I love you too."

She put her head on his shoulder and they continued their walk until they landed back at their hotel.

* * *

 **Questions, comments and suggestions are encouraged! Thanks for reading:)**


	32. Chapter 32: the DAY OF

The next day was much needed for the family of three. They went around being normal. They visited all the touristy sites, ate at all the best restaurants, and took pictures while doing all of them. Fury stayed behind to prepare for the big night.

"I wonder what Fury's been up to all day.", Coulson said to May and Skye as they rode the elevator to their room.

"I have no idea.", May looked at Skye, "He may not look like it, but the man knows how to throw a party."

"Oh yeah, on my 21st he managed to get my entire tactics class to jump out and surprise me."

"And on my 20th he convinced your dad and I to get on a quinjet blindfolded for a 5 hours."

"Where'd he take you?", Skye asked.

"Hawaii."

"Damn. I'm assuming I should be raising my expectations for tonight then?"

"Depends… how high are they right now."

The elevator stopped suddenly.

"Looks like you gotta get out Phil."

"What do you mean our room is two floors above here."

May and Skye looked at eachother and laughed.

"The wedding is in three hours. The bride and groom aren't supposed to get ready together. Here's the key to Uncle Nick's room. Your bags are already in there.", she pushed him out of the elevator. "Now go."

"Fine.". He looked directly at May and gave her the look he used in professional settings and they couldn't kiss goodbye.

The door closed and the elevator shut and started up again.

"What was that?" Skye asked.

"What?"

"That look he just gave you. What was that?"

"I can't really put it into words… You know how I give you certain looks and you understand what I'm trying to get across?"

"Yeah you're like the master at it."

"Well that's the only look he's mastered. And I'm the only one who knows what it means."

"And what does it mean?"

May blushed.

"I love you and I'll see you soon."

"That's adorable."

The elevator door opened and they got out.

* * *

Coulson unlocked the door to Fury's room and found it completely empty. There was a casual yet still formal suit hanging from the closet door with a not attached to it.

 _Coulson,_

 _I'm busy doing my officiating duties right now, so I can't exactly do the best man's job of making sure you don't get cold feet and run out. But, I don't need to worry about that because I know you know that you are ready for this. You and May are basically married anyway. This is just like stabbing a chicken that's already dead: there's no point to it. But, this is something you two missed out on when you were younger and it's something you need to do. You got your baby girl back and the love of your life in your grasp everyday. And let me tell you something, they love you to death. That's not something you want to take for granted. I know you won't._

 _The next part is for if you're actually thinking about running out._

 _You and May are meant to be together. I know it's not like me to use cliches but it's true. And the fact that you two managed to find each other again after all the crap you went through just proves it more._

 _SO THINK ABOUT THAT, CALM TF DOWN AND GET YOUR ASS OUT THERE AND MARRY MELINDA FREAKING MAY._

 _Got it? Ok._

 _-Fury_

Coulson put down the letter and fell back into the bed.

"Chill, Nick. Nothing's gonna stop me from getting married today.", he said to himself.

All he had to do was put on the suit and slightly touch up his hair and he was done. He now had two and a half hours to kill. So he did what he always did when he had time to kill: looked at old pictures of his family.

* * *

"So what are you planning on wearing?", Skye asked.

May looked down.

"Um… this?"

"You're wearing jeans and a flannel. That's not exactly wedding material."

"Well what am I supposed to wear? I don't have anything."

"Or do you.", Skye said as she disappeared into her room. May followed and found her rummaging through her bag. Skye pulled out a long, slim, silky white dress. May was amazed.

"Oh my…"

"I know right! You and dad said you didn't want anything too formal and this dress is perfect."

"It is perfect.", she took the dress and ran her fingers around it. Her fingers stumbled across a price tag. The curiosity in her had to know how much a beautiful dress like this would cost. "Skye. How did you pay for this. This number is huge."

"That's actually the best part. Uncle Nick said somewhere in that toolbox is a way to pay for virtually anything. He said it's only supposed to be used for building planes or whatever but he said this was the exception! Well, and this." She pulled out a white knee length dress with a pretty floral pattern around it.

"You seem really into this."

"I am! I've never had a real reason to dress up all fancy before. It's fun."

"Good. You think you can help me with my hair and make-up?"

Skye's face lit up like Christmas.

May was glad to see Skye returning to her normal self. She knew she wouldn't go back to exactly who she was before, but she could always count on Skye staying true to who she is. And that's all a mother wants for her daughter.

* * *

Coulson sat in his room looking at old pictures, unaware of the giant smile on his face. He thought about opening the 50 year old scotch Fury left for him, but he wanted to stay clear headed to take in every moment.

Suddenly there was a knock at the door. He put the tablet down and went to open it.

"Skye?"

She invited herself in.

"Hey dad."

"What are you doing here? I thought you were helping your mom."

"I did. 30 min till showtime. Are you ready?"

"Yeah. All I've gotta do is tie this tie."

"Don't bother. Mom likes you without it."

"Really? She said that?"

"No, but I can tell she does. Trust me."

"Ok."

She sat down in the chair he was sitting in when she knocked on the door. The tablet was still on and it caught her attention.

"You're looking at this again?"

"I had time to kill."

"I can see that. When was this one?"

He took the tablet to see which picture she was looking at.

"That's at a beach in San Diego. Your first time.", he moved over to the chair next to her. His smile was warm and fond. "I remember you being so confused when we put you on the sand. You didn't like the way it felt. And when I tried carry you into the water you cried louder than I ever heard before. You made me take you back to mom and wouldn't let me hold you until after you took a nap and forgot about it."

"Well of could I wouldn't you made me cry, man!",Skye said sarcastically.

"Hey I thought you would like it.", he paused and continued to look at the picture. "I was actually ok with you holding a grudge. It just meant that you had some of the same qualities that made me fall in love with your mom."

"Uncle Nick told me about when you two were at the academy."

"He did? And?"

"And I realized that I have a long way to go before I find anything like that."

He leaned forward and reached for her hand.

"Hey. I just happened to find the one on the first try. Not everyone does. Don't give up. He's out there, you'll find him.", he could tell she was still thinking about Ward. "And when you do…. tell him what your parents did to the last guy."

That got her attention and she laughed.

"There's that smile."

She blushed and looked at the time.

"Oh shoot. You should make your way to the roof. Wedding's in 15. I'm gonna go with mom."

"Ok see you there.", he stood up and opened his arms indicating that he wanted a hug. Skye was more than happy to give him one. He put his arms around her and kissed the top of her head for a good 20 seconds. "I love you."

"Love you too, dad."

* * *

 **I'll keep the chapters coming to help you get through this mini hiatus!**

 **Questions, comments and suggestions are encouraged! Thanks for reading:)**


	33. Chapter 33: the WEDDING

Coulson made his way to the roof of the building by himself. Countless thoughts of what Fury could have waiting for him. Once he got to the door to the roof he put his hand on the doorknob and took in a deep breath before he opened it.

He didn't know exactly what he expected, but he certainly did not expect what he saw in front of him. It was perfect. A white, drapey rug covered in white rose pedals led the way from the door to a white gazebo. What looked like Christmas lights were spread across the floor on both sides of the white rug to give the beautiful illusion that they were among the stars. On top of all the beautiful decorations was the amazing view.

"Nice to see you read my note, Phil.", Coulson heard Fury say from the corner behind him.

"Come on, Nick. You know I didn't need that."

"I know. It was just a precaution."

Coulson walked over so he wasn't so far away from Fury.

"I knew you were good at almost everything; but I never thought wedding decorating was one of them."

"Well I guess I'm full of surprises.", Fury gestured for Coulson to turn around and look behind him. He couldn't believe who he was looking at.

"Romanoff?"

"Hey, Coulson. Thanks for telling me you're alive."

"I can't believe you're here. Who…"

"I did.", Fury said, "Sorry I couldn't get Cap. He's kinda busy right now and he sends his congratulations. I was gonna get Stark, but he thinks we're both dead and I don't feel like breaking that to him just yet- you know how dramatic can be. And Barton is about to have baby number two so… yeah not the best time."

"But you got me, Phil! And also, Fury didn't decorate this I did."

"Ohh that explains it."

"So you and May, huh? Still goin at it?"

"Well we're about to get married, so yeah."

Skye walked through the door. You could tell she was excited because she didn't notice the Avenger standing next to her.

"Ok dad. She's almost here. Ready to get married?"

"Dad?", Romanoff said, "How come you never told me you had a daughter Coulson?"

Skye's eyes widened when she realized who was talking.

"Holy crap! You're Black Widow!"

"Yeah. And you are?"

"Skye. I'm Coulson and May's daughter."

"I see that.", she turned her attention to Coulson, "I've known you- what… 13 years? Never thought to mention she existed?"

Coulson smiled at her and shrugged. He turned immediately when he heard the door knob turn. His jaw basically hit the floor when he saw his bride.

"Wow.", he said walking over to her. "You are… just, wow.", Coulson put his hands around her waist and leant down for a kiss.

She broke away first with a smile on her face.

"You're not too bad yourself, there.", her hands were on his chest. She felt around and realized something was missing. "Hey, no tie? I like it."

Coulson looked over at Skye who had a giant smile on his face.

"I had a feeling you would.", he leant down to kiss her again.

Natasha made walked over to them.

"Hey, are we gonna do this or what?"

May separated from Coulson and was completely shocked to see her old friend standing in front of her.

"Oh my god, Nat!", she pushed Coulson aside and went over to give Natasha a hug.

"I missed you, May. I heard you were in administration. What happened?"

"Nothing that matters anymore. Phil here pulled me out after TAHITI."

"TAHITI?", Natasha mouthed to Fury.

"I'll explain later. In the meantime; ", Fury reached into his leather jacket and pulled out a small book. "Did someone order a wedding?"

* * *

"Ok. We are gathered here today blah blah blah. You know the drill. Let's get to the good part.", Fury started.

"My dad said he's done this before.", Skye whispered to Natasha.

"He has. But that doesn't mean that he's good at it."

"Ok now can we get the rings."

"Fury who are you talking to? You're the best man.", Coulson reminded him.

"Dammit, right.", he reached into one of the many pockets in his jacket and pulled out the rings.

"Wait, we actually have rings? Where did those come from?", May asked.

"I found some time after Cybertek. Even got it engraved.", he said as he took it the two rings in his hands and handed one to her.

"' _Never giving this up again_.'", she read aloud. "That's perfect."

"And I think now would be a good time for the vows. Phil?"

He took in a deep breath, held both of her hands and looked into the eyes of the beautiful woman he was marrying.

"Melinda, I… I'm in awe of the woman you are. I have been since the the day I met you. I think back to that day and I find it amazing how much has changed since. Words… they just can't describe the way I feel when I'm around you. I could be having the worst day ever-and yes I am referring to recent events- but it doesn't matter when I see you. Because I know if I have you, then it's not a bad day at all. And we've had our share of bad day's haven't we?", he made sure she knew he was talking about losing their daughter. "But after every betrayal, near or actual death experience, I promise that I will continue to do whatever I have to to stand by you- forever. I also promise: I will always be there to help you finish a bottle of our favorite scotch.", with that he took her left hand and skins the ring on her finger. "I know you don't prefer rings so I made you an alternative. This is just for show."

May was never one to show much emotion. But her eyes did grow a bit watery after hearing those vows. But in true Melinda May fashion she shook it off and was able to continue with grace.

"Melinda, your vows?", said Fury.

"Phillip J. Coulson.", she started. He smiled at the use of his full first name. "Where do I start with you? I remember the first day I met you. You were so warm, and kind. It's one of the reasons I let myself get to know you. That and that smile you gave me.

You've always been there for me. Always. Every time I was down you picked me right back up. I was terrified when we found out we were having a baby. And I knew you were too. You could've left- but you didn't. After everything went down I pushed you away. That was a mistake. In those 18 years we were apart there was a giant hole in my life. I tried to fill it. But nothing seemed to fit. In the past year you and Skye… you changed my life- again. And I couldn't be more grateful. I love you. Always have, Always will.", she brought his hands up to her mouth to kiss them before she put on his ring.

At this point Skye was a complete wreck of emotions. Not even a year ago she had no one to call family. She had accepted that family just wasn't something she was ever going to get. And here she was standing as the maid of honor of the people she calls mom and dad. That wasn't even the biggest factor in her many reasons for being an emotional wreck. Seeing two people that in love is enough to make anyone well up a bit. Even a tough man with an eye patch.

Fury cleared his throat and rubbed his nose.

"Very sweet. Now um. Do you take each other and all that wedding crap?"

"We do.", they said simultaneously.

"Great. By the powers vested in me by the now crippled but still alive Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division- I pronounce you husband and wife. Now kiss her Coulson, that's an order."

"You don't give the orders anymore, Sir.", Coulson said as he leaned in and gave May the kiss he's been waiting for.

Their first kiss as an official married couple was something they never expected. There was something else there that they never felt before. Sure before they already had everything they ever needed, but this marriage was just an added bonus. They kissed for so long they didn't even realize the three other people on the roof with them had left and given them the rest of their night to themselves.

"Hello, husband.", May said as they finished their first kiss as man and wife.

"Hello wife.", they both laughed at how cheesy they were being.

Coulson held onto her arms that were draped around his neck and looked around at the amazing looking, empty rooftop.

"We're alone.", he informed her.

"We are.", she removed one hand from behind his neck and ran it up and down his chest while he kept his hands around her waist. "What do you think we should do about it?"

He looked to his left and found a radio on the ledge. There was a note next to it that read, _Press play, Lovebirds. -F._

Coulson gave May a curious look. He let go of her and walked over to press the button. When he did, he was delighted to hear their song playing. He looked back at May who was equally delighted. Coulson held out his hand and she took it. He twirled her around before pulling her in close and swaying back and forth.

There was no need for words at that moment. They communicated through eye contact and body movement. The feelings they were feeling at that moment was a thousand times better than either of them could ever imagine.

The song finished and they sat on a bench on the roof that gives them the perfect view of the city. She had his jacket on while she rested her head on his shoulder.

"Melinda?"

"Phil?"

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think today was a pretty good day for us."

"Hmm. We went around the city like a normal family without having to watch our backs, got married on this beautifully decorated rooftop overlooking the city we had our first mission and confessed our love for each other in, and now we're here. That's not a pretty good day. That's a damn near perfect day."

She looked up at him and smiled. He smiled too, but it slowly faded away.

"What's wrong?"

"This time tomorrow we'll be off who knows where starting the restoration of SHIELD. And I'm in charge of it. What if I can't- It's just… such a big job. I don't know if I can-"

"Hey. Don't do that to yourself. Don't convince yourself that you're incapable of doing this. Fury chose _you_ for a reason. He knows you can do it, Skye knows you can do it, and _I know_ you can do it. We'll be there for you one hundred percent. You're not alone in this, ok?"

"Ok. Thanks, I needed that."  
"Anytime.", he lent down for what seemed like their thousandth kiss of the night (not that it mattered). "Nice view huh?"

"Oh yeah."

"You know where else you can see this view?"

"Where's that?"

"Our hotel room that is currently empty."

His eyebrows raised when he realized what she was saying. He took her hand and they made their way to the room as fast as they could.

* * *

 **Sorry to that person who commented that they were disappointed about skyeward in this fic. In case you haven't noticed this is centered around Philinda. I did like skyeward, but i think the hydra twist opened up a lot more storylines that i would like to explore. Ward won't be going away in this story for a while. If you're into spoilers I don't plan on him loosing feelings for skye anytime soon. ;P**

 **Questions, comments and suggestions are encouraged! Thanks for reading:)**


	34. Chapter 34: the AFTER PARTY

"What are they doing now.", Fury asked Skye who was watching the hacked video feed from the rooftop.

"Sitting on the bench, talking, taking in the view."

"God, these action movies are so fake? At least _try_ to make it seem like the real deal", said Natasha as she scrolled through the action genre in Netflix on the TV in the room the three of them were now sharing. It was a pretty chill night considering what the three of them had been through that week. It was nice. They ordered takeout Chinese, wore sweatpants, and watched at least ten movies on Netflix.

"I know what you mean, Romanoff. They have no idea. Pass the chow mein, Skye."

Her eyes remained on the footage while she passed the food to Fury.

"You looking for something in there?", Natasha asked nodding her head at the computer.

Skye snapped out of whatever trans she was in.

"What? Umm… no. It's just… I can't believe they're my parents.", she laughed to show that she recognized how ridiculous it must have sounded. "I mean come on. Look how in love they are."

"You're right. I've definitely never seen either of them this happy before.", they smiled at each other and Skye's eyes returned to the screen. "You're a lot like me.", Natasha observed.

"Me? You're kidding."

"No, really. Grew up with no family, got caught up with the wrong types of people, and just as we were about to go completely off the edge, SHIELD saved us and we found our family there."

"Wow. To the dot."

"Yah. Except you literally found family. I made family."

"One and the same. Our other team members, Fitz and Simmons, they're pretty much my siblings."

"What about Ward? Wasn't he on your team?", Natasha asked. Skye and Fury looked at each other.

"Yeah.", Skye sighed, "He was something else… something more."

"Ahh. I see.", she walked over to sit on the bed next to her. "What happened?"

Skye grew a little smile on her face. Not because she was happy, but because she knew Natasha wasn't expecting what she was about to say.

"The bastard was Hydra."

"Ward? Grant Ward?"

"Yup. His mentor Garrett got him into it from the very beginning."

Natasha sighed and let herself fall back onto the headboard.

"Wow. I went to the academy with that guy."

"You did? He never mentioned that. Well… he didn't mention a lot of things but how could you not tell your girlfriend you used to be friends with an Avenger? My dad does it all the time."

"Well he and I weren't exactly friends."

"Oh… you two were-"

"Enemies? Yeah.", Skye raised her eyebrows. "He was, what I would describe as: the cockiest dick on campus."

"Gr- Ward was cocky? That is not something I would have thought."

"You have no idea. He was the top senior and I came into training one day and kicked his ass."

Skye slightly choked on her food due to that last sentence coming out of nowhere.

"Nice. No wonder he never mentioned he knew you."

"Yeah. The supervisors saw and immediately bumped me up to his level. For the rest of the year he couldn't stand me. It was kinda fun torturing him like that. I miss it. Especially now that I know he was just another Hydra rat."

"Well if it helps we left him in the bus's cage with only a kiddie toilet and three tuna sandwiches. He hates tuna."

"That does help."

Skye put glanced back at the rooftop surveillance.

"Woah, dad's eyes just got really big. What the-?"

"What?", Fury asked.

"They just ran off the roof."

"WHAT?", Fury and Natasha asked simultaneously.

"No no… they ran down the stairs. What are they doing?"

Fury's face grew a mischievous smile.

"I hid a camera infront of May's hotel room. Pull it up."

With a few key taps Skye pulled up the footage.

"What are we- oh my god."

The three of them were watching the feed when suddenly Coulson slammed against the door. He was out of breath but he was smiling. May entered the frame when she jumped on him kissing the heck out of him.

"Ok! I think I'm done watching this.", Skye scooted off of the bed and plopped onto the desk chair.

"Damn. Look at him,", Fury observed, "She's all being rough and he's got a big ass smile on his face. Just like the old days." He looked up at Skye. "Well not exactly. You grown now."

"Put that away, Nick. It's weird."

"Fine. Their going inside anyway.", he closed the laptop. "I'm beat. Shall we call it a night?"

"We shall.", Natasha agreed.

"Great. Now I have to go to sleep knowing what my parents are doing right now."

* * *

The three wedding guests woke up the next morning and headed down to the hotel breakfast buffet. Not long after, the newlyweds arrived with a special glow to their faces.

"Well there's the happy couple.", Fury announced.

"Hi everyone.", Coulson said as he pulled out a seat for his wife.

"So how was your night.", Natasha asked curiously.

"Uggh it was amazing. Everything, thank you guys… so much.", May said as she sat down.

"No problem. Seriously. After everything Nick and I went through in DC it was nice to take a break and see something happy happen for a change."

"And thanks for that song, Nick. It was nice to have a private moment like that."

The three of them smiled at each other because it _wasn't_ private.

"Personally I hate that song. I was glad to leave.", he said jokingly.

"Nevertheless, it was a great night." Coulson said as he took a spoonful of scrambled eggs onto his plate.

"It was. But I think it's about time we head out.", Fury said to Natasha.

She pulled out her phone and her eyes widened a bit.

"Oh boy. It's about that time isn't it. We promised Steve we'd meet him and Stark at some unknown location. It's gonna be great.", she said sarcastically.

All five of them stood up around the table and exchanged goodbyes.

"Phil, being the director is no easy job, I'll tell you that. But just know that you are the only person on the planet I would trust with it."

"Thank you sir- Nick."

Natasha turned to Skye.

"Good luck with all the Avenger-y stuff."

"Good luck with all the SHIELD-y stuff."

They laughed and shared a hug.

"Feed Ward more of those tuna sandwiches for me, yeah?"

"Totally. And next time you see Thor tell him to stop by?"

"In your dreams, Skye."

She swung her jacket over her shoulder and she and Fury walked out of the hotel. The three remaining sat back down to finish their breakfast.

"We'll meet him, Mom. Don't worry."

"Hey, if you want godly good looks- I'm right here.", Coulson said sarcastically.

May rolled her eyes and gave him a pretty rough punch on the shoulder. They laughed for a couple of seconds before Skye's phone rang. It was Simmons.

"Hey Simmons, what's up?"

Her face went from 'my dad just said something hilarious', to, 'oh crap'.

"Really? When?"

Coulson and May watched her and waited for answers.

"Ok we'll be there ASAP. Sit tight.", she hung up the phone and wiped the few tears that accumulated in her eyes.

"Bad news?"

"Not exactly. Fitz is awake. That's the good part. But um… he's… not Fitz. He won't talk. Not even to Simmons. She said he just has a confused look on his face all the time."

"We have to go there. We'll pick up Trip on the way. Go pack up your stuff. Meet you back here in 30.", Coulson said.

Skye jumped off of her seat and ran out of the breakfast area.

"Duty calls, Melinda. This is where our magic ends."

She smiled and bent over to him.

"No. This is where it begins."

* * *

 **Questions, comments and suggestions are encouraged! Thanks for reading:)**


	35. Chapter 35: the PIES

**A little fluff piece for you here. Enjoy! Next chapter posting very very soon.**

* * *

Skye drove up to the address Trip gave her in a giant SHIELD issued SUV. She honked the horn and Trip came out of the front door. He had two heavy looking bags and seemed like he was struggling. He lugged the bags into the truck and ran inside.

"One more thing.", he said to her.

A minute later he ran out with what looked like a picnic basket. He sat in the front passenger seat with the basket on his lap. Skye was overwhelmed with the smell coming off of it. Trip noticed.

"Mom's chicken pot pie.", he said as he opened the basket to reveal the pies. "Best you'll ever have."

"Mmm. So _that's_ what a good home cooked meal smells like.", she took one out of the basket and opened it to get a better whiff. "Oh yes, you got a fork?"

"Shouldn't we be going? Where's the Director and the cavalry?"

"On the bus waiting. You got a fork or not?"

"Chill girl!", he opened the side compartment of the basket and pulled out two forks.

She took a fork and they both dug in.

"Holy crap!"

"What did I say? Best you'll ever have."

They sat in the car and finished the pie rather quickly. As tempted as they were to crack open another one, they knew they were needed back on the bus.

"So… how was your vacation?", Skye asked as she pulled out of the drive way.

"Much needed. I haven't seen my mom in forever. So much has changed, though."

"The good kind or the bad kind of change?"

"Could go either way, really. My mom's got a new boyfriend. That's kinda weird. They'd make sexual entendres like I'm nine and don't know what they mean."

"I know exactly what you mean. Very uncomfortable."

"Yeah. But it's all good. It was good to see her. With what we're doing out there everyday- you never know when you're gonna squeeze in these visits."

"Well, if it means you come back with these pies every time… we'll make sure you see her as much as possible."

"Well alright then. How was _your_ week off?"

"Amazing. We went to Sausalito, mom and dad got married, and I met Nick Fury and Natasha Romanoff. No biggie."

"Damn, girl! 'No biggie', my ass."

"It was great but, now I'm just worried about Fitz. He's awake but Simmons said he's not the same. Like apart of him is gone."

"That's rough."

"Yeah. Ward did that. I still can't believe it. I mean I can it's just that I don't want to."

"I get that. Same with me and Garrett. We may not have been as close as you and Ward, but he was still my SO. All that time he spent teaching me the SHIELD standards- he was just doing the opposite. Now he's gone and there's nothing I can do. But Ward's right there. You can do whatever you want."

"Not _whatever_ I want. There are still rules. But I have a few ideas of my own."

"That'a girl."

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It wasn't the best choice to put Fitz in the med pod downstairs, but there was no other choice. He still needed to be monitored and that was the only place they could properly do it.

Simmons would sit there to make sure he was ok. And Skye would stay close by to make sure she was ok.

"I don't know what to do, Skye.", Simmons said as they sat in the kitchen area. "He looks at me and I can tell it's hurting him."

"What's hurting him?"

Simmons sighed and stirred her tea. She mentally accepted that she needed to tell Skye what happened.

"When we were… down there… he um… he told me how he really felt. About me."

"Oh… And you said."

"That's the thing. There was no time to say anything. That was our only chance of getting out of there. But even if there was anytime I wouldn't know what to say. Now I'm worried the hypoxia isn't the only thing holding him back right now."

Skye put her fork down and moved the pot pie aside.

"Jemma, look at me. If I know Fitz he'll understand if you don't feel the same. That's how much he cares about you. But right now he's struggling and you're the one he really needs."

"But me being around won't help him if he's trying to cope. Maybe I should leave."

"Wh-"

" _Landing in 5.",_ May said from the cockpit, " _Skye go wake up Trip. Tell him I need help up here."_

"We're talking about this later. But you're _not_ leaving."

* * *

 **Questions, comments and suggestions are encouraged! Thanks for reading:)**


	36. Chapter 36: the BREAK

**FYI: Make sure you check out chapter 35 if you haven't already. I posted it about two hours ago.**

* * *

The team landed in a secret, old SSR base called the Playground. It was big; giant actually. It had a hangar that could hold hundreds of planes, and thousands of square feet of rooms and hallways. Fury really did have a plan for everything. But it was definitely old. Walls crusty, floors not tiled, electricity cutting in and out- it was a mess.

Coulson didn't mind. He knew that they were capable of fixing all of it. He was more fascinated with the fact that he was about to head the exact same base Peggy Carter once did all those years back when it was an SSR facility.

The base came together rather quickly. The lab was set up, the director's office put in place, bunks became suitable for sleeping, kitchen stocked, gym equipped, a few video games were even put in a common area for the agents.

Everyone found their favorite spot. Coulson's was in his office where he had even more space for his memorabilia, May's was in the gym, Skye's was in her bunk where all her hacking equipment was, Trip's was in the gun range, and Fitz and Simmons spent most of their time designing the lab. Even Ward had his own space on the base. Granted he didn't choose it himself, but it was his.

New agents were recruited from what remained from SHIELD and they found their spots too. Agent Alphonso Mackenzie was a mechanic who Coulson found along with a bunch of other agents who were on the same ship when SHIELD fell. He spent most of his time on the bus with all of the vehicles that needed attention. Agent Isabelle Hartley had known Coulson for a while. The two worked together many times in the past and remained allies. She brought along two mercenaries Agent Idaho and Agent Lance Hunter. The three stayed in the kitchen munching and drinking for it was all they felt the need to do with them not being there for the cause.

Coulson was always busy though, always away recruiting anyone he thought would work well with SHIELD. May and Skye missed him, yes, but they spent most of their days training.

"I have some news.", May said as she spared her daughter.

"Oh yeah?", Skye asked her mother and new SO. "What is it?", she said continuing to throw punches.

May let their fight finish before she spoke. And by finish she meant pin Skye to the floor.

"Dad's coming home today. We're going out tonight. Care to join?"

May got off of Skye and they sat on the mats next to each other.

"Take the night off from training and see my dad I never get to see anymore? Of course I wanna join."

"That's what I thought you'd say."

She got up and extended her hand to Skye to help her up.

"So what should I wear? Is like a casual night out or fancy dr-", she was cut off by the fist that swung toward her face. "Ok I guess we're back on."

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They didn't go anywhere fancy or anywhere with lots of people. They went where they knew they could escape from the SHIELD stuff and be themselves: Coulson's house in Wisconsin.

"Yes!", Skye said as Coulson walked out of the kitchen with a large dish in his hands. "Dad's famous ribs and mac n' cheese."

With a giant smile he placed the dish in the middle of the dining table. He took a seat next to May.

"It's the least I could do- with me being out all the time."

"Don't worry about it. You're the director, it's your job.", Skye said as she took a scoop of mac n' cheese on her plate. "How's that going, anyway?"

"I don't know. I knew it was gonna be work but I didn't know it was gonna be _this_ much work."

"Is it too much?", May asked.

"At times, but I can handle it. It's just that there we so many things I'm dealing with. Recruiting, system tweaking, expense dealing, Simmons, paperwork-"

"Woah what? What about Simmons?"

"She didn't tell you? I thought if she was gonna tell anyone it would be you."

"Tell me what?"

"That she's leaving."

Skye leant back into her chair with her mouth open.

"Leaving? She's quitting SHIELD?"

"What? No. She's leaving the base, going on assignment."

"Going on assignment… where?"

"Unfortunately that's classified. But she'll be safe."

Skye didn't want to ruin their family dinner so she kept her feelings inside for the moment. When Coulson saw her face ease up he turned to May.

"So… how's your trainee doing."

"Surprisingly well."

Skye scoffed at the word 'surprisingly'.

"What? Ward didn't train you properly. All he was trying to do was get in your pants.", Coulson flinched at this mental image his wife just placed i. his head. Skye nodded in agreement with her reasoning. "So yeah, surprise is the right word. But I am impressed that you've only passed out once."

"She passed out?", Coulson asked with a worried look on his face.

"It was only for a few seconds."

"Well I'm sorry if I couldn't do a thirty minute plank with four dumbbells on my back and you squirting me in the face with what I hope was water on my first try."

"Aren't you glad I made you do it again and master it? Now you've built enough strength the punch with four times the force you used to."

"Ok yeah, strength is apart of it. But what's the point of the freaking spray bottle?"

May grew a mischievous smile and took a bit of the barbecue.

"Sounds fun.", Coulson said sarcastically.

"Not as fun as I hear you're having torturing my ex boyfriend. How's that going?"

"Great.", he said before going in for a rib. "And by 'great' I mean he hasn't said anything in the three weeks I've been in there."

"Maybe you should let me in there.", May said clutching her fists. "Remind him how he got that fracture in the larynx."

"I would, but I've already done the worst SHIELD has to offer when it comes to torture devices. He's stayed quiet through all of it. You'll get your chance, Melinda."

"Really? He hasn't said _anything_?"

Coulson glanced over to May and down at his plate.

"He's spoken once. But it wasn't intel."

He took out his phone, tapped a couple times and put it in front of Skye.

She saw it was security footage of Ward i. his cell. She hadn't seen him since before May beat him up back at Cybertek. Since then he became more pale, his arms were larger and his beard grew. She had to admit that it looked good on him.

She took in a deep breath and pressed play.

" _This won't work, Coulson! You know what I want. I want Skye- I'll talk to Skye. Give her to me and I'll tell you anything you want."_

Skye didn't really know how to respond. She wanted nothing to do with him. He betrayed her and everyone she loved. If the only thing he wanted was to see her she definitely didn't want to give it to him. But if it meant it would help her team, then she could put her feelings aside and make the sacrifice.

"Skye?", May asked as she reached out for her hand. "Are you ok?"

"Don't think about it too much. I'm not gonna send you down there. I know how hard it would be for you."

"Yeah but uh… don't throw it completely off the table. One day you're gonna need intel from him fast and I may be the only option. If you need it I'll do it."

He nodded and it was quiet. They came to house to get away from the stress, and there they were in a heavy conversation.

"So, Skye uh… what's Trip's latest theory about the Koenigs?", Coulson asked.

She swallowed her food before she could accidently spit it out from laughter.

"You're gonna like this one, Dad."

Coulson's eyes widened.

"Oh yeah? Shoot."

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They finished up dinner and watched a cheesy Hallmark movie in the living room. Every time something cheesy or romantic happened Coulson and Skye would 'ooh' and 'awe' while May rolled her eyes. Movie night was always one sided for this little family. May preferred a good horror or action movie whereas Coulson and Skye just wanted to enjoy a comedy.

"Uggh! And when he surprised her in her house after being away for so long? That was so cute!", Skye said after the movie finished.

"Genius. I wonder why I never surprised you like that, Melinda."

"Because if you ever tried to surprise me you would get seriously hurt."

"Oh yeah. That's why."

May sighed and took a big swig of her beer.

"I just don't get why you two like these movies so much.", she complained.

"It's just our thing I guess.", Coulson said as he put his head on her shoulder with a cheeky smile on his face.

"Yeah,", Skye said after stuffing her face with M&M's. "Like _our_ thing is training and getting haircuts."

Coulson furrowed his eyebrows and looked back and forth at his wife and daughter.

"You two got haircuts?"

"Yeah, thanks for noticing.", Skye said sarcastically.

"Well-"

"I could understand you not noticing mine, all I did was get a trim and switch sides.", May said. "But Skye cut off 5 inches and got bangs."

"Seriously, dad."

"Well I guess I was just too distracted by the beautiful faces _under_ the hair."

May and Skye gave each other a look and rolled their eyes simultaneously. Coulson knew it was a cheesy dad thing to say but he enjoyed watching Skye cringe at it. He couldn't help but pull her in for a kiss on the top of the head.

"I'm heading to bed. If I stay out here any longer than I'm gonna end up with a hangover in the morning. Seriously, you guys need to chill with the alcohol.", Skye said as she stood up. And made her way to the stairs.

"Um… If we need to chill with the alcohol, then why are you bringing a bottle of Kahlua to bed?", May asked.

Skye gave in like a teenager.

"Fine I'll leave the Kahlua. But it better be there in the morning."

Coulson and May watched as she walked up the stairs and waited until they heard her bedroom door shut.

"So.", May sighed.

"So.", Coulson echoed looking at her with those damn googly eyes. "How are you? Really."

"I'm fine. Bed get's cold, though."

"I know. I miss you too. These recruitment missions are starting to wear me down. I just wanna come back to base, be with you."

"You do what you need to do, Director. I can wait."

He leant down and kissed the woman leaning against him.

"You wanna go to bed? I promise it won't be cold.", he offered.

"Let's go!"

They made their way up to their room and jumped under the giant comforter. She slid into his arms and they laid there with each other.

"Maybe it's time to stop recruiting. Start working on what we already have.", Coulson said when he realized how much he missed this feeling.

"Whatever you want, Phil."

They had one of their mental, eye contact conversations. It was nice to for them to just see each other. They lost track of how long they were doing it but May was the first to break the silence.

"I know you're busy all the time, but you're gonna be on base next week, right? Specifically the 2nd?"

"Of course. What do you have in mind?"

"Yeah. I've been making plans with Trip, Fitz, Mack and Hunter."

"A party?", he asked. She nodded. "She's gonna love it."

* * *

 **Questions, comments, and suggestions are encouraged! Thanks for reading:)**


	37. Chapter 37: the BIRTHDAY

Skye lay asleep in her bunk. She was knocked out. Completely still. Hair across her face, drool sliding down both corners of her mouth, arms flailed in opposite directions, legs in and out of the blankets, she was a mess. She had a right to be. The day before was one hell of a training day. May showed no mercy while teaching the art of holding up under torture.

She had no idea the surprise her fellow agent family had waiting for her when she woke up- _if_ she woke up.

"It's 12:30.", Trip whispered, "Is she gonna wake up?"

"She usually wakes up at 11 on her days off.", Coulson added. "What did you do to her?", he asked May.

"Nothing… we went over how to hold up under torture."

"Ahh, geez. She's not waking up anytime soon, is she?", Trip sighed.

"No, she's not.", said Coulson. He walked over to the side of her bed and squatted so he was at eye level with his seemingly unconscious daughter. "Skye.", he said shaking her shoulder gently. "Skye wake up." Not effective. "Skye get up.", he said shaking her harder. All she did was turn to the other side. "Are you kidding me?"

"Oh! I know.", Fitz said, "Hey!", he said exaggerating his voice, "Trip. I found where Skye keeps the candy!"

And just like that she shot up straight on her bed.

"You'll never find it!", her hair was all over her face and her eyes weren't completely open, "Stay out of my sock drawer."

"I told you it was in the sock drawer.",Trip whispered to Fitz.

Skye squinted at the bright light and saw that everyone was there in her room. They were surrounded by balloons and streamers. She then realized that Trip was holding a cake.

"Wh- what's going on here?"

"Happy Birthday!", everyone said simultaneously.

While everyone had big smiles on their face, Skye remained confused.

"Birthday? It's my birthday?"

Coulson and May looked at each other.

"You didn't tell her when her birthday was?", Coulson asked May.

"No I thought you did. That's why it was on her new SHIELD contract- the one she filled out."

"Oh actually, I filled that out. She didn't feel like it and she gave me those damn puppy eyes."

May rolled her eyes.

"What day is it anyway?", Skye asked rubbing her eyes.

"July 2nd."

"July 2nd.", she repeated. "Sounds good. What do you say you let me get ready and we can celebrate my 25th outside."

"26th.", Coulson corrected. "You're 26."

"Wh- I missed being 25?"

"I guess so."

"Dammit. So when I thought I was 20. I was actually 21. And I didn't have to pretend my scotch was apple juice."

"Yup.", May said totally ignoring the way Coulson reacted to the underage drinking comment. "Let's go. We got a few things planned."

* * *

The day was amazing. Skye never celebrated a birthday like that before. Back at the orphanage she was assigned a random date to celebrate. The nuns would bring out a single cupcake with a candle on it and all the other children would sing to her. For a while it made her feel special. But after seeing all the other kids receive the exact same thing she realized that none of the celebration was real. It was just something everyone felt like they had to do.

But this birthday was different. Her team had the entire day planned out to her liking. Everything she wanted and more. A trip to the mall to buy a new secret agent friendly wardrobe, a few hours at Dave and Busters, and a couple round of drinks at the bar above the base.

"Well this was fun, but I think I'd better take Fitz back to the base. I think he's had one too many drinks.", Trip said getting up from his seat. "Come on, man.", he slapped the back of Fitz who was laughing uncontrollably at the picture of a beer glass with eyes on the wall.

"You two gonna be alright?", Coulson asked.

"Why would you ask such a thing?"

"Because A: You're sitting in the wrong boothe and B: You were just clicking your heels together while saying 'there's no place like home.'"

Trip and Fitz looked at eachother confused. They figured it out and got into the right boothe. Coulson walked over and pushed the button to lower them into the base.

"Thanks Coulson! You're the best! Best! Best! Best!", Fitz said as they descended attempting to make it seem like it was an echo.

"Yeesh. I think they're gonna need another day off tomorrow, Director.", May said when he returned to their table.

"I know. But it was good to see Fitz enjoying himself again. He hasn't been like that since Simmons left."

"Six shots of tequila can do that to a man.", Skye added.

"True."

"Thanks for today, you guys. It means a lot."

"It was no problem, really."

"Yeah. We never gave you any birthday party's or anything like that when you were growing up."

"I know but that wasn't your fault."

"Still."

"It's nice to have this though. A day made just for me, not for anyone else. Very different from my 'birthdays' at St. Agnes."

May and Coulson looked at each other feeling awful.

"They chose a random day for me, April 18th. Said I looked like an April baby. Whatever that means."

"You were on the bus with us in April. Why didn't you say anything?"

"After I escaped the foster system I figured there wasn't really a point it celebrating it. I knew the odds of it being my actual birthday were _very_ slim. And there was no one I really wanted to celebrate it with- so I just kinda accepted that birthdays aren't something for me."

Coulson clutched his heart and slouched into his seat. He wasn't trying to be sarcastic, though. It was just something he needed to do because what she just said actually pained him.

The parents looked at her daughter like she was some lost puppy that had given up on life. Neither had any idea what to say.

"You guys don't have to look at me like that. I'm fine! See! I turned out mostly ok. Forget about it."

"Uggh. I can't believe you just asked us to forget about the fact that we weren't there to raise you and now you're an adult with a horrible past.", Coulson said after gulping down the last of his scotch.

"What? Horri-"

"We're not gonna forget about it Skye.", May added.

"Yeah. We're gonna make up for it until we die. My birthdays next week. You can have it."

"You're _giving_ me your birthday."

"Absolutely."

"Are you drunk?"

He took a shot he found among the used glasses.

"Absolutely."

Skye facepalmed while Coulson sat there watching with a giant smile on his face.

"Well mom what about yo- and she's asleep. Ok maybe we should head down. Rest up for tomorrow."

"You're right.", Coulson said. "Come on, Melinda.", he said as he picked her up and set her down in the boothe.

By the time they finished the descent into the secret room in the base, Coulson and May were knocked out on eachother. Coulson's face was drooling into May's lap while her head lay flat on the table in front of her.

Skye got out of the booth and pulled out her phone to take a picture.

"My parents… Happy birthday to me."

* * *

 **Questions, comments and suggestions are encouraged! Thanks for reading:)**


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